“I think we should stay close by.”

We had left the territory of Flame Ever Dancing and the Blazing Mangos had long since worn off; we stood a short distance away, and despite our exclusion form the effects of the fire, it was still uncomfortably warm this close to the boundary. Still, the drop in humidity was a trade I was glad to make.

“With instinctual abhorrence, why would you wish to stay here longer than you must, Hunter? This place is horrible. No offense meant, Darina.”

Riffa’s voice was incredulous, and I had to admit that I did not really want to spend a great deal more time in such a hot, wet place in which apparently ninety percent of the wildlife was waiting to eat me; but the fact that the egg had been stolen once kept nagging at me, and my bad feeling was being irritatingly persistent.

“None taken, Riffa. The Sha Forest is my home, but having experiences more of the world, I must admit that there are more... comfortable places to be.”

Darina’s response was an actual shock; I had been expecting her to defend the place as some sort of trial to winnow out the weak, but instead she had shown a little weakness. She had grown a lot as a person in the last couple of weeks and a part of me wondered if that was part of the reason her master had sent her with us.

“In casual dismissal, this place is not a bad one, though it would perhaps be more pleasant without the biting insects.”

“Reff, you can just decide not to be hot; that’s totally a cheat. Can’t you, I don’t know, re-direct the heat away from us? Please?”

My giant friend looked down at me without responding, his huge garnet-on-black eyes blinking down at me slowly.

“With renewed reflection, I may indeed be able to, Hunter.”

“What?! Why are we been sweating our asses off if you’re a walking air-con unit?!”

“In both clarification and confusion, the integration of my Exemplar appears to have advanced; I could not have done so previously. I may be able to complete my Path and enter the Foundation stage within the next few days. In regards to your various asses, they do seem to still be attached; is this a reference to some strange condition from your homeland?”

“And what the Void is ‘air-con’? You speak too many languages; I can never tell if you’re being an idiot or not.”

“In helpful interjection, you do seem to err on the side of idiot, however, Darina.”

“Okay, guys, time-out – stop. Leaving aside my totally relevant idioms and references, if you could turn the heat down, Reff, I’m sure the three of us would be really appreciative. Also, congratulations, Big Guy, that’s amazing!”

“In modest thanks, I will attempt to cool the area around us. Please stay close.”

Both his sister and the short apprentice looked impressed that Reff was so close to achieving the next stage of cultivation, though it occurred to me that I did not actually know his age. I knew that his brother is centuries old. I resolved to ask, at a more appropriate time; at that point, I was actually way more excited to be cool again, and it looked like the other members of my group shared the sentiment, as we all stepped in closer to my friend’s huge form.

For a moment, nothing happened, but then the temperature began to drop steadily, until I felt goosebumps break out across my skin, and I was starting to think he would go too far when it seemed to level off. Now gloriously cool, I groaned in pleasure, even as I saw mist forming around us. It was a strange sight, like a small bubble of fog that cut off sharply a few feet from us.

“Reff, you’re amazing. If you ever want a career, I’m sure you could make a fortune giving tours of hot places.”

“With thanks repeated, I appreciate the compliment, Hunter, though this is as cold as I can make it; there are places in the world where this would not be adequate to protect a group from the environment, much as it would do little to combat the Elder’s flames.”

“With luxuriant thanks, this is perfectly fine, brother. Much closer to home.”

“Now that we’re all cool and collected, I want to put staying here back on the table.”

“Why do you think we should stay, Hunter? What can we do that the Elder cannot?”

“I don’t know, Darina. I just have a bad feeling. If the egg is stolen again, I don’t think there’s going to be a second chance to give it back.”

“With firm self-awareness, we are a strong group, Hunter, but Darina is correct; what can we do that the Elder cannot?”

“Flame Ever Dancing said they see heat, right? What if they have somebody like you, who can change the way heat behaves? The Shadow-Faced-Guy seems to interfere with Apex-level senses, if you combine those two things, it’s not impossible, right? Isn’t it worth the time, to make the effort?”

“In reluctant agreement, while I agree with my brother and Darina, as you say, it costs us little but time, and should it prove that the egg is stolen once more and we did not make such an effort, I feel that we would all regret it. If you wish to stay, Hunter, I say we should.”

“I do not think there is anything we can add against such a force, but if you are staying, I will stay. Somebody has to keep Hunter’s head attached to his neck, he already lost an arm...”

“Hey, I didn’t lose it, it was stolen.”

Darina dismissed my objection with a wave of her hand, and I snorted before looking to Reff for his vote.

“With patient consideration, I will stay. We have fought this group before, and although they have members which outmatch us, we have ended many of their number. Fate seems to walk beside you, Hunter; perhaps we will get lucky.”

“There’s a saying where I’m from, ‘It’s better to be lucky than good.’. There’s some truth in it, but if we can, I think we should aim to be both lucky and good. What do we know about our enemies? Obviously, the inferno is massive, and we can’t just rely on luck to be in the right place at the right time.”

“They’re unlikely to come from the thundering ape’s territory; they may be able to cloud Rainmaker’s senses, but that seems to irritate him enough to go looking for them... which unfortunately leaves most directions open, as it seems the man who took your arm is able to move between worlds.”

“With calculated consideration, are there any other Elders in the Sha Forest, Darina? They are unlikely to wish to travel through one, if it can be avoided.”

Reff was rubbing at his chin with the side of a finger, his gaze flicking between the apprentice and the direction from which we had come.

“There are no others nearby, unless a beast has Awakened since I last left.”

“How about environmental or geographical barriers? There are no, like, stretches of jungle infested with some strange creature that preys upon assholes, are there?”

“The forest to the East is home to a type of spider that kills its prey using monofilament web strands; the webs themselves are almost impossible to see, especially moving at speed or at night. It is unlikely they would choose that approach after visiting it... should they survive the shredding.”

“Horrifying. Ok, so South and probably East are probably out. North and West?”

“In thoughtful addition, there is also the air and ground, depending on their talents.”

“In reluctant confirmation, my sister is correct. There is also the possibility that the... Shadow Faced Guy... is able to open a door directly to the egg.”

“Shit, this is a mess. How do people even defend themselves? What’re the point of walls?!”

“The majority of beasts, and cultivators, are not aerial or subterranean, so walls still serve a purpose. For most the part, specialised cultivators, and beasts, are countered by either other specialised cultivators or other specific defences. We do not have access to those, unfortunately.”

“Okay, so let’s assume Shadow Faced Guy can’t just open a door and grab the egg; if he could, I think we would have been attacked earlier, with no need for the mooks. When Walker retrieved me from the other world, he needed his dagger to be in the open, so he could lock on to it. Even if the exact methods are different, there’s still a lot of distance between worlds and I have to think he needs something to tell him where to go, to get any degree of precision.”

“In hesitant agreement, that seems logical, Hunter. While it does rely on a number of assumptions, the fact that we were not attacked in such a fashion lends the theory validity.”

Reff did not seem entirely convinced; if his expression had not told me that he had reservations, adding ‘hesitant’ to the start of his sentence certainly would have.

“Good: That leaves four directions. Let’s also rule out the ground and sky as well; so far, they haven’t had anyone who can be both invisible and travel on anything by the ground. I’m not saying it’s impossible, it seems like pretty much anything goes in cultivation, but again, attacking us from above or below would have significantly increased their chances of retrieving the egg.”

“In tenuous agreement, I can accept that logic, though perhaps they did not feel the need to risk such resources against us.”

Riffa, whose idea those approaches had been in the first place did not seem convinced either, it really was a very convenient manner of speech they had. She was also right; there was the possibility that they just did not think it was warranted to send more than mooks after us, at least at first.

“We know that the – I refuse to call him the ‘Shadow Faced Guy’, we need a better name.”

Darina looked me with irritation; her refusal to use my perfectly accurate name for the man who had stolen my arm was not particularly surprising, given how much dignity she tried to act with, so I offered another alternative I had been mulling over.

“Chainy McShadeface?”

“No.”

“How about we call him Charming?”

“Why would we call him Charming, when he is so clearly both insane and violent?”

“... Because I found him to be quite... dis-arm-ing... I’ll show myself out.”

“Out of where? Why do you insist on speaking nonsense? You make it very difficult not to insult you.”

“You’re doing great... in comparison...”

“Perhaps I should go ba-”

“With hurried interjection, perhaps we should simply call him, ‘Shade’, until we come into possession of more knowledge?”

I turned my widening grin away from the short apprentice before she had chance to boil over, and instead turned my body to face my large friend fully.

“You’re right, Reff. It’s as good a name as any; while it’s not as descriptive as Shadow Faced Guy, it’s definitely shorter and easier to shout in an emergency.”

“Fine. We know that ‘’Shade’s’’ abilities do not seem to lend themselves to either flight or tunnelling, but as he is the only person we are aware of who is able to cloud the Elder’s senses, we must assume that he will be with any potential thieves. To successfully steal the egg from under the Elder’s nose, they would need Shade, somebody to hide their heat and somebody to make them invisible. The latter two would need to be capable of doing so for multiple people. To either fly or tunnel in, they would need to be able to do so over a large area, and it would require a person or people capable of transporting multiple people as well. It does seem too convenient for all of this to come together.”

“Darina is right, that does seem like it would be pretty convenient. So, we rule out flight and tunnelling – especially since there’s nothing we can do about those anyway. That still leaves North and West.”

The four of us were silent for a time after that, all clearly lost in thought as we tried to imagine the various methods of approach; cultivation added a lot of uncertainty, but if you ruled out what you could deal with and what seemed overly convoluted, you could narrow it down to a number of approaches, accomplishable in variety of ways. You just had to hope that your imagination did not fail you.

After a few minutes of consideration, Darina spoke up once again, her red-jade eyes looking North as she absently ran a hand through her short blonde hair.

“To the North there are a lot of farmers; I would not normally consider them any kind of barrier, as their cultivation is based on the growth of plants, however recently I believe that they have managed to breed a new variety of orchid which with heightened properties, increasing the potency of healing pills. They have likely garnered the protection of the Alchemy Association. While I do not know the strength such protection entails, specifically, they are a powerful force, and the Risen Throne may wish to avoid their attention when attempting to steal from an Elder.”

“Nice - avoiding the attention of an unknown contingent of cultivators would further complicate their preparations, even more than flying. And even if the guards couldn’t actually stop them, they could raise enough of a fuss to give Flame Ever Dancing warning, at least. So, West?”

“In predominant agreement, while I feel like we are making too many assumptions, I also believe we have little choice. Still, this leaves us with a number of miles to cover.”

“With affectionate impartation, sometimes all we can do is try, sister. A thing may not always be easy, or possible, but we grow in the attempt. Come, we shall head West, around the perimeter of the flames and see if we can spot a likely approach.”

Reff smiled down at his little sister, who was rolling her eyes at his wisdom and I shook my head, grin still held on my face; I was very glad I had met them. I had not had any siblings growing up, but I liked to imagine that if I had, they would have been like the risi siblings. Knowing my luck, back on Earth however, I thought it more likely they would have been like Darina when we first met.

Shuddering at the thought of growing up with a bitter Darina clone, I wiped the smile off my face turned West to go looking for a fight.