As the seconds stretched on, doubt started encroaching on my determination. Am I really sure this is a good idea? Or at least a well calculated risk? After being burned once, you aren’t supposed to come back and reach into the fire.

I shook my head, quieting those thoughts. It wasn’t like I could change my mind now. Besides, Mior was here, and I trusted them.

I stepped forward slowly, and after a moment of hesitation, took my new weapon from my storage ring. Fides’ tip seemed to stir the unnaturally still qi just a little, and its weight felt comforting in my hand.

A heavy presence approached, and the qi in the glade across from me started to condense, until a familiar figure stepped from its whirls. The Pioneer looked the same as before, with a body a little more defined than a typical spirit, clad in flowing cultivator’s robes. He carried an almost translucent spear in his hands, shorter than mine and with strips of leather wrapped around it, looking like a historical artifact. He held the weapon loosely in his hand as he stepped forward, regarding me with a faint frown.

‘Rijoko’s daughter,’ he said. ‘Did you come here to provoke me?’

‘Pioneer.’ I bowed politely. ‘I had hoped to meet you here, but it was not intended as a provocation.’

So far, it didn’t seem like he was looking for a fight. At least he hadn’t attacked me right away. That was good.

Suddenly, a small pulse of qi reached me, and I tried not to wince as I felt an echo of Mior’s presence. ‘What are you playing at here, Little Light?’

‘I’m not planning to do anything stupid. Don’t worry,’ I sent back to my allied spirit, trying to be quiet.

The Pioneer snorted. ‘You’re very bold, mortal princess. Perhaps too bold for your own good. How did you know I would pay attention to this place?’

‘You’re playing dangerous games, Inaris,’ Mior said.

‘Maybe,’ I answered Mior. ‘But it’s a calculated risk. He won’t attack me unprovoked, as we’ve already proven. I don’t think he even wants to. And you’re here. You’re my safety net. Now please, let us talk.’

At the same time, I straightened up, taking a step closer to the hostile not-actually-a-spirit. I felt Mior’s qi withdraw a little, to the point I wasn’t sure if they were listening in or not.

“I just want to talk,” I said, quietly, but I was sure he could hear me. “I don’t know what significance this place holds to you. What speculations I have are probably wrong or incomplete.” Although the way he showed up here confirmed some of it.

The Pioneer smoothed his expression and changed his grip on his spear so it pointed straight upwards. ‘You are playing a dangerous game,’ he said, making me wonder if he’d heard my conversation with Mior. ‘On the other hand, your bravery is commendable, if perhaps misplaced.’

He turned around. I hurried to catch up to him, and followed him further away from the building. We walked in silence for a few moments. Like Mior, he didn’t disturb the world around him in any way, not even the fallen leaves on the ground, and made no sound.

He was certainly being nicer than when we had met previously. Had something changed? Or maybe it was just that he didn’t have orders to work against me this time, and he wasn’t feeling bound to be too hostile.

‘This place was originally your father’s,’ he said after a bit. ‘Although it changed hands a few times. Most recently, it belongs to my benefactor, Jideia, although it was abandoned quickly afterward.’

‘And I’m guessing you had something to do with that,’ I said.

He didn’t respond, but the way his expression tightened just a bit, I knew I was right. There were advantages to having an opponent with a perfectly human form. Besides, that he called Jideia his ‘benefactor’ caught my attention.

‘You’re him, aren’t you?’ I asked. ‘The so-called mortal hero from the myth. I didn’t manage to find out his name, but it fits. I’ve heard you’re not really a spirit. And I know you don’t hate me, or Rijoko.’

I noticed his grip on his spear tighten just a bit, and the weapon started tilting towards me. Then he brought it straight upward again. His face was expressionless. A little too expressionless.

‘Perhaps,’ he answered after a long moment of silence. ‘What does it matter to you?’

‘I like to know who I am dealing with,’ I answered, taking care to keep my tone and expression calm. ‘And I was curious. Because I’ve noticed you don’t quite fit what I might have expected. And of course it matters to me if you are intrinsically hostile to me or not.’

He snorted, a sound that sounded far more humanlike than even Mior. ‘Of course you do,’ he muttered. ‘I should have expected nothing less. Be glad I don’t hate you, girl. It wouldn’t end well for you if I did. Less so than it will, anyway.’

I raised an eyebrow. I hadn’t expected him to admit that so readily. Although, admittedly, not hating me isn’t a particularly high bar. We don’t even know each other and I never hurt him.

I fell silent for a moment as I noticed he was changing course. We had been walking through sparse forest and along rocks until now, at a slow, casual pace. Now, he seemed to curve around back towards the building. We hadn’t come too far from it, anyway, and had to still be within the grounds of the fortress. But now the way back led through thicker growth.

‘I know it’s nothing personal,’ I said, ignoring the fact I was pretty sure he had something against me. At the start, at least. ‘Although I would like to know why Jideia wants me dead.’

‘Because you’re dangerous.’ His face set, and he’d bitten that answer off quickly. But something in his eyes made me think that there was more to it.

‘Because I’m Rijoko’s daughter, and the Imperial Princess? Or because I’m introducing new technology? Or because I might ascend?’

Like Mior’s father had. It was just one datapoint, but that was actually pretty informative. Even if I assumed that Rijoko had had dozens of children and only one ascended, it was still a far higher rate than the general population, or even strong noble bloodlines.

The Pioneer made a dismissive gesture. ‘We don’t care if Rijoko’s daughter is a princess. Surely, you don’t think we were unaware of your existence? Although I do have to admit things didn’t quite turn out like I had hoped. Like I said, you’re dangerous. Too dangerous.’

I frowned. That had to refer to Mother’s bargain and what Carston had told people in the Dominion. Perhaps my soul journey as well. ‘So I’m not worth the risk anymore and now you want to eliminate me.’

The Pioneer shrugged and stayed silent. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk about this any further. He must have already told me too much.

I decided to change tracks. ‘This fortress looks abandoned, but it’s too well maintained. You’ve clearly been keeping an eye on it. That’s not the kind of sentimentality I’d expect from most spirits. Is it because this was Rijoko’s originally? Or was this where you ascended?’

The Pioneer stayed silent for a moment, then shook his head. ‘Sentimentality, yes. When I was a mortal, I lived in a time of turmoil, of a shifting world and qi barely controlled, the path of cultivation only starting to be paved. I was the only one who had reached the peak of what mortals could aspire to be, what you would call the black stage, on the continent. Like most heroes of myth, I suppose, I was arrogant, clever but … not farsighted. Like other young geniuses I could name.’

I nodded without responding to what was probably a barb. I got the feeling that he hadn’t had much, if any, opportunity to talk about this.

‘I know my strength was why Rijoko chose me. I set out with the best intentions to help my people. But things were not as easy as they at first seemed.’ He sighed. ‘At that time, I did not actually know it was possible to ascend further. There were only rumors I had heard from spirits. Only perhaps a few others had done it. So when I saw the opportunity, I did what any true cultivator would and seized immortality.’

I frowned. I wasn’t quite sure, but it sounded like he wasn’t really happy with that kind of cultivator’s mindset.

‘So, you claimed this fortress for Jideia and he helped you ascend to the white stage,’ I finished when it seemed like the Pioneer wasn’t going to complete his tale.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. ‘You don’t seem particularly bothered, considering I as good as admitted to betraying your father.’

I shrugged but didn’t answer. I’d expected something like this. Though, really, it almost sounded like he regretted the whole thing, like he felt guilty about his betrayal. I knew I needed to be careful drawing a conclusion like this, but it was valuable intel. And it makes me care about this, on a personal level, less. We’ve all done things we regret.

We walked in silence for a bit. I finally put my spear away. Probably should have done that earlier. After a moment, the Pioneer followed suit. He was still a lot stronger than me, but I felt that was a good sign. He turned again, too, leading us on a longer path. We could have been back at the main building by now, but instead we took a stroll through the wildest parts of the grounds around the fortress.

‘You seem like too honorable a person to be an assassin,’ I finally said. ‘Are you sure you need to try to kill me?’

His face closed off as if someone had snapped shutters closed to block out light. ‘Don’t push things, girl,’ he said, a warning growl in his voice. ‘We are still enemies. You are a danger to us and perhaps the world, and I will not go against Jideia’s wishes for some pretty face.’

Uh. Pretty face? Not quite what I expected. I shook my head, chasing that thought away. I should have realized that if he was originally human, and with my appearance, that might play into how this looked for him, too, but it didn’t matter.

‘You know what I think? You don’t really want to fight Rijoko. Do you? He helped you back then. You’d rather just let the two of them squabble among themselves without getting involved. Maybe get some more distance from Jideia, too. Why don’t you just do that?’

His eyes narrowed, and I saw some anger in them. His presence started to bleed out of his form more strongly, adding a weight to the air around us that made me instinctively want to cower and back off. ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about, little princess. Mind your words if you don’t want them to be brought to a stop.’

We were finally coming closer to the building again, on a path that opened into the glade I’d stepped out onto shortly. Mior’s presence was now nearer, as well. I took a deep breath. I knew I was pushing it, taking a risk. But I didn’t want to stop. I’d flustered him, gotten a reaction from him, and I wanted to see what more I could get, gauge his response.

‘Like I said, I think you’re honorable.’

He hissed. ‘So, in order to make up for betraying my benefactor back then, I should betray my benefactor now? You think that would be honorable?’ He laughed. It sounded a bit dark even in my mind, but at least his anger actually seemed to have cooled a little.

I fell silent. There wasn’t much I could say to that. I could hardly press the honor angle any further, and I didn’t know enough about Jideia or his relationship with him to work on that. Although, I had picked up a few nice hints from his reactions and the way he spoke about the Greater Spirits.

But even if things ended here, I had already gotten good results for my risk here. It was probably time to cut my losses. Though, there was one other reason I’d come to face the Pioneer. I would be taking an even bigger risk, but I hadn’t found any leads to other options.

‘Clearly, you’re honorable enough not to even try to harm me here. Even though I waltzed right into this place, which is personally important to you.’ I smirked at him. ‘You even let me provoke you without much of a response. Why, you’d almost think you like me more than you would admit. Or do you simply not care about Jideia?’

By this point, we were back in the glade, with enough room for a fight. But I knew it wouldn’t come to that. I looked up at the Pioneer, a grin on my face, daring him to respond.

His eyes flashed and narrowed slightly. His head tilted to the side. I realized that he had seen through me, knew I was trying to provoke him into another mental attack.

A moment later, his mind slammed into my defenses. I gasped and backed away a step, focusing on my visualization and my mental defenses. This was different than last time, perhaps because we weren’t in a dream but the real world. The Pioneer’s mind was strong, with hard spikes driving unerringly into the corners of my mind. Even without using his full strength, which I was pretty sure he didn’t, he almost got me.

But I had improved since the last time. I controlled my mind strictly, setting up and maintaining the imagined labyrinth around it, ordering my consciousness into several layers.

But I did allow him some purchase. Just enough to make this attack real, to bleed through my mind and shake its foundations. I let some of his qi to me, go up against my mind and into the outer layers, where I kept nothing of importance. I could sense his hesitance. He didn’t really want to look too closely into my mind, perhaps afraid of waking my connection to Rijoko.

But at that point, with my consciousness under attack and a bit of foreign qi that tasted like spirit and yet human seeping into my mind, I reached into its depths myself. I grasped at the qi woven into my body, through my skull and even touching my brain, and which the connection with Rijoko brought. And I felt something shift, just the tiniest bit.

Suddenly, the Pioneer withdrew his mind. He crossed his arms, tension in the lines of his body, and looked at me with an intensity I hadn’t seen before, as if he was trying to make sense of some problem. “You surprise me, Little Light. I wonder if you know what you are doing.”

I blinked in surprise. His voice sounded perfectly natural, but for some reason I hadn’t considered he could speak normally. I quickly suppressed my surprise and nodded my head. “I hope so.”

The corner of his lip tugged upward in a hint of a grin. He paused for a moment, then turned around. “My name is Isuro.” And with that, his form dissipated and his presence moved away.

I stared after him for a moment, wondering what was going through his head. For the first time in this conversation, I felt off-balance.

Shaking my head, I turned around. I felt exhausted, not physically but mentally. My mind seemed to hold too much energy, and I had trouble focusing on a single thought as I walked back into the building. The light seemed brighter, the sounds both more muted and louder than before. But most importantly, there were feelings gathering at the back of my head that I didn’t quite know what to do with.

‘Inaris, what do you think you were doing?’ Mior asked, stepping out of one of the doors and to me in a moment. Aston had his arms crossed and a bit of a scowl, an expression I hadn’t seen on him before.

‘Taking a risk, and I think it paid off.’ I kept walking, too preoccupied to pay more attention to the unhappy spirit and probably even unhappier guard captain. ‘Let’s go quickly.’

I had gotten some information on the Pioneer and my opponents. The rest might not have gone as smoothly, but there was something to it. The feeling I had was hard to put into words, but I knew I’d managed to touch qi woven into my mind, if briefly. Something connected to my memories. It didn’t appear I could recover my old life’s memories this easily, but perhaps this was a first step. And now I knew I had strengthened my mind and its defenses, and could strengthen it further.