“I wish we’d asked Loneth which building she’d heard the cultist in...”

I spoke in a low voice, not wanting my voice to carry, even if we were pretty far from our watchers by then.

“With mitigated regret, none of us were thinking entirely clearly, Hunter. It is also possible her directions would not make sense in our current circumstances."

I nodded in the dark at Reff’s words, eyes scanning the lights scattered around the pit, of which there were many. Either we had underestimated the manpower of the Earthen Sky, or they were really wasteful with their alchemical lamps.

“Couldn’t we simply look for a recently repaired roof? There should by at least a minor variation in shade between the new and old tiles.”

“With regretful consideration, that variance may be difficult to perceive in the dark, Toria.”

Riffa was crouched behind the trunk of a tree, her own lowered voice still very audible at our distances, but I thought that both she and her brother were doing an excellent job at preventing their naturally louder voices from carrying.

“It’s an idea though, because something damaged the roof, right? Maybe a tree, or just a branch falling? Or rocks from a cliff? Maybe we look for that?”

There was silence for a moment as the others considered my idea; other than moving about at random, it was the only idea I had been able to come up with so far. Though, given my Lucky ability’s capacity to bend fate, maybe wandering around at random would work; not that I wanted to rely on that, as my Luck had a tendency to provide very dangerous – if rewarding – opportunities when left to its own devices.

“You want us to search the entire place for broken branches and recently broken rocks, at night... in the dark?”

Darina’s tone told me she had some doubts about the idea, and despite it being my best one, I had to admit that it represented a daunting task. If we had longer, we might have stood a chance, but the Earthen Sky having a member that could read cultivation stage really put a timer on things, since they would all be revealed as cheating lying cheaters immediately upon inspection.

“It’s that or we just blunder around.”

“Or we could ask somebody.”

“I like the optimism, Dee, but that sort of defeats the whole purpose of sneaking.”

“Not if we do it sneakily, fool. I’m not suggesting we just walk up to somebody and ask them; I’m saying we should ambush somebody and question them. And then we keep doing it until somebody knows something. And will you stop calling me ‘Dee’!”

“I like like idea, De-rina... but it has a couple of minor drawbacks. First of all, that sounds really shady, since we don’t know if most – or any – of these people are really involved with the Risen throne. Secondly, that’s hardly better than just wandering around. Thirdly, what do we do with all the people we’ve questioned? Fourthly, what if we grab a Pinnacle stage by accident? Fifthly-”

“Fine, I understand, the plan has some flaws. But we do not have a great deal of time, Hunter. Perhaps you could come up with solutions, not just criticisms?”

“Okay, that’s fair. So, if we find the info we need, we could just leave. Maybe. It’s a long drop from the wall, but we could probably manage it. We could... tie people up, I guess. That still leaves the shadiness and randomness. And the chance of starting something with somebody we can’t finish it with.”

“With inspired consideration, we could perhaps look at the other buildings around ours; it stands to reason that guests will be provided lodgings in the same general location, with perhaps more luxurious housing for the high-profile ones. It should be much quicker to check such a relatively limited number.”

Reff’s idea was a good one, with the only real flaws that I could think of being that it was possible that we had simply been placed somewhere convenient, and that it would mean backtracking to exactly where we had been.

“It’s potentially possible that we were placed in the location that we were simply because the house was free, but that should be easy enough to confirm, and if it doesn’t work, we haven’t lost much.”

I was glad Toria had said it, I did not want to always be the naysayer in the group.

“You’re both right. We can also, you know, check for branches and stuff while we’re at it. I also have an idea that might work for rooting out the Risen Throne member without having to question and tie people up. Potentially.”

It was too dark to see the expressions on their faces, but I could almost feel the raised eyebrows and doubt from Darina, and could guess that the others were not fair off.

*

***

*

As it turns out, broken rocks and fallen branches were pretty common on the circle of the Inverted Mountain we were occupying. We had made our way back, keeping to the small gaps behind houses, though it was a little difficult for the risi, given their expansive proportions. Still, we managed to make it without being spotted, and that at least was a win.

We had decided to start with the first building we had passed in our escape; it represented the most risk, with it being so close to our watchers, but moving out from one point meant we had the least chance of missing somebody. It did however make my idea more difficult to implement, obviously.

“Is that a broken branch in the tree above?”

I looked up at Darina’s hushed question, following her almost invisible gesture to squint at an only slightly more visible possible stump on a tree high above us and sticking horizontally from a cliff.

“It... could be. But... what’re the odds that they put us right next to the place we wanted to find?”

“About the same as any of the other things that happen around you.”

There was not a great deal I could say to that, so I just shrugged into the dark.

“With subdued emphasis, perhaps this is not the time for extraneous discussions?”

“... Sorry, Reff. You’re right. I'll go up and see if any of the tiles look new. Actually, I probably won’t be able to tell, in the dark. I guess I could use my lightning, but it's not exactly subtle. Toria?”

“I don’t think that I am the best option, my flames are relatively bright.”

“I guess that leave you, big guy.”

“In dry contradiction, you could simply use a light flask, or vial inside your sleeve. I do not think that my leaping onto the roof would be as silent as my descent.”

I blinked in the dark; I had obviously seen the alchemical lights in a lot of places – even the house we were staying in – but it had never actually occurred to me to buy any, outside of the heat sources I had taken on our trip to the Sha Forest.

“Uh, good point about the noise. I don’t have any lamps though... Anybody else?”

Almost as one, my companions each pulled a glowing vial from storage, though they made sure to do so under the cover of their cloths, ensuring the light did not become too apparent. I felt sheepish, given that I thought I had prepared relatively well for my various trips, but at least it meant I would remember in the future.

As I crouched there in consternation, Reff produced something else and slipped the vial into it, cutting off the glow from all but a single point, converting the omnidirectional lamp into a flashlight. As he did, the other light-sources vanished, presumably back into storage.

My friend held the freshly converted flashlight out to me, and taking it, I turned and lightly leapt, just hard enough that I could make the roof, but not by so much that I would rise above the peak.

I landed softly, having judged the distance well, but since I had timed it so well, I found myself teetering on the edge, and if not for the enhanced balance that came with being at the Path stage, I would have re-joined my friends much sooner than anticipated.

Balance now set, I crouched and began to move carefully about the wide roof, using the pin-holed light of the vial to illuminate the tiles. With all the talk of and thoughts on my luck, I was really starting to anticipate that this really was where the cultist was going to be, but as I much as I searched, I found no sign of new tiles.

Cursing under my breath, I realised that it was perfectly possible that any replaced tiles could simply be on the front, rather than back of the house where I was. I pondered the issue briefly before deciding I was going to need to take a look, and that meant either hoping the watchers were not watching, or distracting them somehow. Not wanting to take unnecessary risks, I edged to the top of the roof, and lifting my head above the crest just enough to peek over, trusting elevation and the dark to keep me hidden.

I could see a couple of them as shadows and silhouettes, but I could not place all of them. I hoped they were not about to sound the alarm, but if they were, that gave me even more incentive to distract them.

Quickly, I sent a filament of Praxis into my various storage items, searching for an item that could conceivable have fallen from above and did not scream ‘outsider’ to anybody finding it. I sensed the flask they had given to me, and I was tempted to use that, since it had literally come from them, but I had no actual idea how common they were, and so passed it up. I also considered throwing one of the limbs that I still had in storage, just for the shear hilarity of imagining them finding it, but it was not a real consideration.

After a brief search, it appeared that I no longer had anything that I could really call innocuous in my storage, so I opted for something at least would not be too suspicious: one of V’s shoes.

Drawing the show out, I swung back my arm and hesitated, wondering if I should tell my companions my plan, but in the end decided that time was of the essence. Focusing for a bare moment for the additional speed, I threw my arm forward, catapulting the shoe in as high an arc as I could, being careful to avoid the tree above me.

I could not see the projectile once it left my hand; not only was it moving fast, but the dark would have made it almost impossible even without that. I had aimed for the other side of the house our sand replacements were in, hopefully far enough away that it would draw our escorts’ attention away from both that house, and me.

Peaking over the roof again a moment later, I saw the few I had spotted previously turn in the direction of my throw and vanish into the shadows of the night.

Knowing I may not have much time, I Focused again and stepped onto my Path, not pushing too much; even holding back, the multiplicative effect was enough to give me some degree of confidence in making it back in time. Slipping over the top of the roof, I quickly moved about the red tile, searching for any sign that might indicate recent work, but too my vague chagrin, there were none.

I slipped back over to the cliff-side of the roof and cut the Praxis off from my abilities. I was almost happy that this was not the building we were looking for, as strange as that might seem. We were relatively short on time and could be discovered at any moment, but it would have been too easy, if our target had just been next door. Convenient, but... easy.

Making my way down again, I tapped my path again, just for enough time to make the fall and dropped it again, one metaphysical eye on my energy reserves.

“Well?”

Darina’s whisper was impatient; normally I would have considered waiting a beat to bug her, but we really were in something of a crunch.

“Doesn’t seem to be the place; we should move on now though, I had to throw a shoe so our escorts wouldn’t spot me.”

“In vague confusion, why did you throw a shoe, Hunter?”

“I figured it would be less suspicious than a broken sword or torture implement. Or an arm.”

Even in the dark, I could see both Darina and Toria open their mouths to ask about the arm; I had forgotten just how curious they could be, but not wanting to go into it, spoke up hurriedly.

“We should move on; they might check about for the source of the shoe; I threw it in a high arc so they might think it came from above, but you never know. Let’s go...!”

I moved on before anybody could reply, my pace brisk.