I hesitated for a moment, then circulated a trickle of qi to my eyes to get a better look at the fire. By now, it was clearly visible from here. People were starting to move away, and when I swept my gaze farther out, I could see how the Zarian were organizing their response.

I couldn’t help but smile. None of them were even looking in my direction. Not really. But that was the point of using sunlight focused through qi lenses to do it. It meant I could set fire at a distance, and there was no easy way to tell that I had, or where it came from. Just that their court and administration buildings were on fire.

I waited until the smoke thickened, rising into the sky like a dark halo for the building beneath it, before I resumed moving. I lowered myself into the water, careful not to disturb it too much, then closed my eyes and focused on implementing the changes that I’d envisioned.

After a minute, I kicked off and swam deeper into the river, until I skimmed just over the ground. I moved slowly, sucking air in through my newly grown gills, and inched my way forward. I knew I didn’t have much time, the fire wouldn’t serve as a distraction forever, but I forced myself to move slowly and smoothly.

Finally, I reached Elia’s position, who nodded at me and moved to follow behind me. While I wore only my underwear and had changed my skin tone to a blurry gray and brown to match the river bottom, she’d chosen clothes in the same muted colors. At least she’d made her hair match it, as well.

I took a deep breath as we came upon the grate blocking the way out of the city, at the height where the gate would be. I’d previously analyzed but dismissed it as too big a risk. Now, though, it was the best option. With Elia in tow, sneaking through the gate would be a lot harder.

I released the shroud of darkness qi I’d kept over us before carefully moving on. It was dark here, the water flowing quickly, a bit of silt and mud swirling in it as well as what might be sewage from the city. But I focused on the gate ahead of me. It was crafted from solid, reinforced metal, made with two layers. I was more concerned by the qi around it. Several enchantments and wards controlled the space. I made sure to keep my aura as low as possible as I slowly inched closer. Like we’d discussed, Elia kept back behind me.

The wards didn’t go off, even when I finally reached the grate itself. Of course, that would produce too many false alarms. But I could tell the lock itself was warded more strongly, and even a bit of foreign qi would probably set off several alerts.

I closed my eyes for a moment as I shapeshifted yet again, this time changing only my right arm. I made it thin enough to pass through the grate, then lengthened it. It felt odd, adjusting its shape on the fly, in ways that weren’t very intuitive. But I managed to reach the lock where it sat behind a sheet of solid metal.

This would be the tricky part. I closed my eyes again and pressed my hand into it, before I made it lose its rigidly defined form. Growths of a horn-like material, like an extreme version of fingernails, sprouted into the lock. I was careful not to scratch or deform it, but to keep the mass pliable, until I filled the mechanism and got a good idea of how it worked. Then I turned my hand, turning the keys in the lock in the same motion. I breathed out and pushed against it, feeling it give. I moved on to the second lock behind it and repeated the process with more confidence.

A good thing they used a physical lock. Of course, with cultivators, I could guess those were actually harder to bypass than enchantments relying on qi.

Carefully, I pushed the gate open. It took a bit of strength, as the grate wasn’t really designed to be moved, and probably hadn’t opened in years. Luckily, no one would hear any suspicious creaking underwater. I opened it only wide enough to pass through, then carefully made my way through it and swam a meter ahead. Elia moved up to the gate behind me.

I glanced at her, then concentrated on the rest of the wards. There were a few that might be problematic. I doubted they were supposed to be easily visible or easy to figure out, but my sense for qi was a lot better than that of a typical cultivator in the fourth stage. I could probably sneak my way past them, but I wasn’t so sure about Elia. Her storage ring might be a problem. It was a lot smaller and cruder than mine, but held what supplies we had. Maybe we should have left it behind, but that wouldn’t help in the long run.

I circulated some darkness qi, just a trickle, and formed the basis for a technique. Slowly, a thread of darkness took shape in front of me. The wards didn’t react. That was the good thing about the Void’s Nibble, of course. It was designed to annihilate any foreign qi it came into contact with, so if someone or something sent their qi or spread it out to catch a disturbance, it would be consumed before any signal could travel back to it. Like a mini black hole you could only detect by its side effects. And since this effect was new or at least rare, wards weren’t set up to search indirectly for it.

The defenses were placed around the gate and the area between it and the end of the small tunnel, before the water flowed out of the city wall. I moved my tendrils of darkness carefully, isolating components and cutting the equivalent of wires in the connections between and inside the wards. I worked slowly, double-checking to make sure I didn’t miss anything or let too much qi build up somewhere to cause another malfunction. It was interesting work, and I caught myself wishing I could have more time to analyze this setup.

Finally, it was as disarmed as I could make it, and I continued moving forward. Elia followed behind me. I held my breath, but she managed to pass the wards without issue. It was only a few meters before we left the gate and the city wall behind us.

Of course, we didn’t surface immediately, but continued moving at the bottom of the river. I felt a lot less nervous now. We’d successfully sneaked our way out of the city. It had even been fun. Let’s just hope the rest of the trip doesn’t make up for that. Though having her along might be a benefit here. She’s bound to know the region better than me.

After a few kilometers, I stopped and gestured upward. Elia let out a visible sigh, before kicking off for the surface. I smiled and followed her, swimming for the riverbank. The river was moving more slowly here than before, and it should be a good spot to climb out.

We emerged in a shallow valley, with gradually rising banks that led up to a low forested range on one side and a patchwork of meadows and fields on the other. A little farther ahead, I could see a ford connected to a back road, though it was less of a road and more of a well-trodden path. There was no other sign of civilization I could see from here.

I accepted my clothes from Elia. She averted her gaze, and I tried not to feel embarrassed about my current state of dress. We had bigger things to worry about than modesty. So I quickly put the clothes on and dried us off a little, then led the way out of the valley. The ground of the meadow we reached was soft and spongy, not ideal for running, but a lot better than it could have been.

“Let’s get a move on,” I said. “Actually, wait a second.”

I quickly focused on the qi surrounding us and drew in some air qi to use for a technique. It was a simple one, just a general buff to Elia’s speed. I could have used my light technique, but that was better suited for short-term enhancement, not long travel. I didn’t use anything to affect myself, since the issue here was how well Elia could keep up with me.

She had a bit of trouble as we started running, but quickly got the hang of it. We accelerated, and the meadow flew past us. In short order, we’d moved past a short dirt track into another one. I looked back, where I could just see the city on the horizon, and watched it get smaller. We were moving in the opposite direction from what they’d expect of me, if I was trying to get back to the Empire directly. Hopefully, that would help. I watched as the city vanished into the horizon.

A few hours later, Elia began breathing hard, and I slowed down to a walk to give her a break. There was no point in pushing us too hard, and we needed endurance more than speed.

“By the way, what was that technique you used to deal with their alarms?” she asked. “It was amazing. I didn’t think you could just erase wards like that.”

I grinned. “Thanks. It’s called the Void’s Nibble.”

She raised an eyebrow. “That’s an … odd name for a technique.”

“I made it myself,” I answered, then frowned. That was probably a bad thing to admit if anyone else heard it. But if Elia was captured and told the Zarian what she knew about me, it didn’t change much.

“Impressive.” She tilted her head to the side. “If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you really?”

I shrugged. My young age in combination with my stage was definitely an identifying detail. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

She shook her head. “Yes, I would, if it’s the truth.”

I regarded her for a moment, then shrugged again. “Almost certainly younger than you.”

“Really?” She blinked. “Not that I’m doubting you. You’re actually that young. Huh.”

I was silent for a moment as I picked my way past a boulder. We were avoiding roads, for the most part, since we didn’t want to run into other people. Our current trail took us past another meadow and into a rocky area, an extension of the foothills of another forest range. I didn’t know how long my shoes would stand up to our travels, but I’d go barefoot if I had to. It wasn’t like getting a strained ankle or blisters was a concern.

“Your spirit-child bloodline is the Sun’s, then. Isn’t it?”

She jerked, then stilled her movement. “How do you figure that?”

“I can sense something from you that makes me pretty sure you’ve got spirit blood. You looked through my veil easily and can apparently tell the truth of things, or something. With your affinities, that’s pretty telling.”

I couldn’t be sure of my guess, but it was the only thing that fit. The Greater Spirit of the Sun was, after all, associated with truth and justice.

“You’re right,” she finally admitted. “I suppose she’s my grandmother. My father was a son of the Sun.”

“Was?” I asked, before I could think better of it.

She was silent for a moment, before she nodded. She looked down on the ground, though that might just have been the difficulty of the trail. “I grew up about a hundred leagues from here, in another small nation under the influence of the Zarian, with my mother and siblings. When I was little, my father left, recruited to join the Zarian forces. He visited a few times, but not often. Then, a few years ago, he stopped sending letters. Apparently, he was killed in some border skirmish with the Federation, or so they said.”

I nodded, trying to look sympathetic. “I’m sorry to hear that. That can’t have been easy for you.”

She shrugged. “He stopped sending money, and Mother wasn’t used to having to watch her purse, so I suppose it wasn’t. But I got by.”

I grimaced. “And your siblings?”

Her expression darkened. “A few of my brothers were being stupid and trying to make trouble when the Zarian came. Cost them our small estate. That’s why we had to leave. Well, all that were left. My oldest brother left to find out what happened to Father, but he hasn’t had much success.”

I wasn’t sure which of those subjects was less thorny to ask about. But she seemed to like having someone listening to her. “You think there’s more to it?”

She was quiet for a moment. We had crested the ridge and were now walking down a grassy hillside, so the going was easier, but she didn’t seem to notice our surroundings. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “Maybe it was just bad luck that killed him.”

“You think he was targeted,” I guessed. “Infighting within the Zarian, someone seeing him as a threat?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, but I don’t not think so, either.”

I nodded and stopped talking for a minute. This would be a good time for me to open up, establish some more trust, although I was a bit hesitant about that.

“I’ve never really met my father, so I can’t really relate,” I admitted. “But I can see why you don’t like the Zarian. If you don’t mind my prying, though, why aren’t you with the rest of your family now?”

She shrugged. “I got tired of their sh… behavior. Far as I know, they’re still in some decrepit quarters in the city.”

“Fair enough.”

This was probably enough prying for the moment. I’d ask her more about what she could do later. But for now, I stepped up the pace again.

Elia sighed, but she didn’t complain. She almost seemed glad about it.

“I should find a place to get some sleep later,” I mentioned. “For now, let’s keep running.”

She raised an eyebrow, probably surprised since she knew I’d slept in the city, but didn’t ask. She might have been saving her breath for keeping up with my new pace.

I didn’t mind the lack of conversation as we continued traveling. I had enough to think about.