I crouched down low, giving my technique less surface area to cover. It probably didn’t make much of a difference, but every little bit might count. Besides me, I heard Elia shifting her weight, and suppressed the urge to tell her to quiet down. In truth, sound was less of a problem than visuals.

One of the Zarian soldiers in the observation post we were observing looked our way, and I instinctively held my breath, but his gaze moved on quickly. He looked bored, just like his colleagues. Good for us.

We were close now, and I couldn’t help but glance at the ocean. I found it a little ironic that out of every time I’d been to the coast in the last year or so, this was the one that looked like what you’d imagine if you heard the word ‘beach’. The trees weren’t palms, but they did have large, green leaves that swayed a little in the breeze. The cloud cover had lightened, and the sun sent down a few beams that made the water sparkle.

Sil tapped my arm, then gestured to the side, holding up one finger. I nodded in response to the prearranged signal and started moving, trying to keep directly behind her. The Zarian soldiers were looking away, and we’d chosen our path so that only one of them should see us for most of the way, anyway.

Quickly, we lost sight of them behind a rocky cliffside that was just low enough to shield us from view farther in. I didn’t know why they were watching the ocean, or the approaches to it, so intently. Perhaps allying with the sea dragons was showing its downside. I supposed it didn’t matter, in the end.

Sil sped up, still completely silent, and left us behind for a bit. Her form seemed to vanish from my sight, even though I’d reinforced her veil with some of my own qi. Before I had the time to be nervous, a Zarian soldier rounded the bend ahead of us.

Both of them were in a higher stage than me, and I barely managed to comprehend the struggle. It was too brief to call it a fight. The Zarian woman tried to lash out with her qi, but it splattered harmlessly against the rock. I quickly threw out a glob of darkness qi to mop it up. She didn’t have the time for more than that little bit before Sil got her. She tried to move back, but didn’t dodge quickly enough. Metal flashed for a fraction of a second, then the soldier crumpled. Sil put a hand over her mouth, presumably to muffle the sound of her death throes.

I stepped up to them, glancing at the fallen Zarian curiously, then back to Sil. “Should we deal with the body?” I whispered.

The agent shook her head. “Let’s go. They won’t discover it until it no longer matters.”

On the way back, we still tried to keep quiet, but moved considerably more quickly. It probably helped that we only had to worry about detection from one direction now, and knew our disguises worked well. This would have been harder if the agents didn’t know the Zarian patrol routes here.

Once we got close to the outpost again, Sil stopped us for a moment, and we observed it. I could see and sense the activity that had overtaken it. All the soldiers were now alert, throwing on or grabbing equipment and checking formations. Wei must have made his move. Perfect timing. I’m glad the agents are on my side.

All but one of them jumped onto flying swords, and they were off before I’d even finished the thought. The remaining soldier kept a hand on his sheathed sword and glanced around.

We didn’t creep up to the wooden barrier surrounding the outpost. That would be counterproductive with our stealth techniques. Instead, we walked, softly but in a straight line, right up to the gate. Once there, Sil used some air technique to reduce the noise, and I extended a shield of darkness qi. Then she reached between two posts of the palisade, her fingernails scratching against the wood, and pulled on her enchanted knife. I waited with bated breath until she’d carved a hole into the palisade and slowly lowered it out. Then she jumped through, and I took a deep breath and followed, Elia behind me.

This time, the soldier had more warning. He managed to get off a spray of rocky projectiles and grab for some qi-based device on a nearby table. Sil swatted most of the projectiles out of the air, and I weaved through the rest, weathering a few impacts to my arms and sides.

Sil dashed for the device, a current of air blasting it out of his hands just before the soldier managed to send his own qi into it to activate it. I took the opportunity to blast what might as well be a laser at him, which distracted him long enough to fumble whatever he was trying to pull from his belt with his other hand.

One of the rocks curved back around and threatened to smack into my head, so I ducked that and batted it out of the air with my forearm. By the time I looked up again, Sil had the Zarian in a chokehold on the ground.

“Don’t kill him,” I said, hurrying forward.

Sil nodded. “Of course not, Your Highness.” Her tone and expression added an unspoken ‘yet’.

I got to the prisoner, pulling his face out of the mud by his hair, and angling it so we could all see his expression. Sil accommodated the move. “Are you alone here?” I asked.

The Zarian glared back at me defiantly and answered in a string of swearwords. Well, half of them were cuss words, the rest I didn’t know, but the meaning was clear.

“You should cooperate,” I told him, keeping my voice calm. “It’ll go easier if you do. I might even let you go. If not, things could get very unpleasant. I won’t waste much time here.”

Just then, there was a chime from another talisman he was wearing. Judging by what I could see of the qi flows and formations, clearly a communication device of some sort.

“What was that?” I asked, but he stayed silent.

“It’s a victory signal, isn’t it?” Elia asked.

“No, whore, it’s a signal to say your life has ended!”

Elia frowned and looked at me. “It is a victory signal.” After a moment, she glanced at Sil.

I followed her gaze. “Does that mean they defeated Wei?”

Sil was silent for a moment, then nodded. “Yes. He must have been either captured or killed.”

I grimaced, then looked back at our prisoner. “Are you supposed to respond?”

He didn’t answer. Before I could say anything else, Sil laid a hand on his torso, and he started convulsing, letting out a choked scream.

After she left off, he was breathing hard and shaking his head. “No.”

Elia spoke up again. “Yes, he is. Probably an all-clear signal, right?”

I sighed and held up a hand to stall the agent in case she got any other ideas. “Great. Sil, how can we figure out what’s up with Wei and rescue him if he’s still alive?”

The agent looked surprised. She answered in Common, as well. “With all due respect, Your Highness. My duty is to protect and guide you back to safety. This would be extremely ill-advised, and I respectfully suggest you abandon the notion.”

I frowned. I knew she was right, but still felt like I should say something. “But your partner …”

“Wei knew what he was doing,” she said. “The mission comes first. Your safety comes first.” Then her tone softened. “He would be proud to die for the Empire.”

I nodded slowly. Maybe further protests might dishonor his sacrifice in her eyes, or something.

“Your Highness, we should hurry,” she continued. “We need to either get this prisoner to cooperate and send the signal, fast, or leave right away.”

I glanced back at him. I knew she meant torture. That didn’t sit right with me, and I didn’t know if we’d manage to break him this quickly. I shook my head. “We need to leave swiftly.”

Sil bowed her head, then her knife flashed again. A moment later, there were was one less person in the encampment. I didn’t look too closely, since I’d learned my lesson about having a perfect memory. And I didn’t comment on it. Leaving him alive would have been too much of a risk, and I didn’t feel the need to rationalize it to myself.

“They’ll know something’s wrong,” Elia said. She seemed to have trouble looking at anyone, and her voice was a little tight. “Are we going to get to the coast and away before they catch us?”

“We’ll make sure of that,” a new voice said.

I spun around, the knife I’d stashed up my sleeve in my hand. There, just a few meters away, a veil of darkness qi was lifting. I only recognized that I’d sensed it now that it was starting to change. It was a strong working of darkness qi, hiding them from sight, sound and our qi senses.

“No need to worry, Imperial Princess,” a man’s voice said, as two figures slowly faded into view. “We’ll escort you until you can meet your own people.”

I blinked in surprise at the man and woman standing there. They were strong, although I couldn’t quite tell how strong. But they weren’t from the Empire. If the faint accent hadn’t tipped me off, their clothing would have. It wasn’t a style I’d seen much of before, more form-fitting and subdued than was common in the Empire or even where I’d traveled. And they both had a small version of another nation’s symbol with those clothes, embroidered in the fabric or embossed on a buckle.

“Oh, I see,” I said. “Alright. I assume you have a ship?”

I tried not to let them see how disconcerted I was. I guess Sil never actually said we would be picked up by Imperials. I glanced at her and saw that she seemed tense, though. Maybe she didn’t know.

“Of course,” the woman answered. She waved her hand, and a ship faded into view on the ocean behind her, in the shallows just before it would be beached on dry land.

Maybe it made sense that a ship from another nation would be better able to pick us up undetected than an Imperial one. Though, I wouldn’t have expected them to do it. The Empire’s relationship was Adzur was relatively good, but that wasn’t saying much.

I started walking, knowing that we didn’t have time to hesitate. Sil and Elia followed. The two strangers turned and led us on a direct path to their ship. With cultivators’ speed, the meters vanished quickly. I just sensed the Zarian’s presences at the edge of my range as we reached it.

The ship looked to be built of wood, and it had a sleek appearance, with clearly low draft, or whatever it was called. It didn’t fly the flag of the City-State of Adzur prominently, so this probably wasn’t an official delegation.

I knew the tide would be coming in soon. Right now, its pull in my senses was muted, distant, but it was already starting to rise. This wasn’t the best time to set sail, probably, but their ship would handle it. I could sense the strength of the qi in its materials and enchantments. One of them felt a bit like a steam engine, situated at the back of the ship.

We waded into the ocean and boarded the ship via a wooden ladder that unfurled itself from their deck, probably guided by the domain of one of the two Adzurians. I let Sil board first, then climbed ahead of Elia as she hesitated. Our hosts flew upward without any discernible device to help. I mentally revised my estimate of their strength upward.

Their ship only had a skeleton crew, at least judging by how few people I saw. The crew, mostly young men and women in the third or fourth stage, ignored us in favor of focusing on their task. I stepped up to the deck and looked back the beach, just in time to feel a jolt as the ship got itself loose and started moving. The Earth Continent spread out before us. It was a nice view, but I didn’t mind leaving it behind for now.

I didn’t see the Zarian, at least.