I rose tiredly to my feet and staggered over to examine Jing. She was laying on the ground, breathing raggedly, but the pulse in her throat was strong and steady. Her pale skin was slashed and torn where the man’s nails cut her, and long, black lines wound up from those wounds, crawling beneath her skin and disappearing under her flesh.

“She’s pretty hurt,” I thought silently.

I jumped as Sara appeared before me. “It’s qi poisoning, John, just like the Hard-Shelled Stone Blades gave her. Only this looks a lot worse.”

“Okay, so how do we fix it?”

“I have no idea,” the woman said helplessly. “However, I know she’s keeping some of her father’s medicines in her pouch. They might not cure her, but they might keep her alive long enough to get back to him.”

I pulled open the leather pouch at her hip and withdrew a series of clay bottles. Opening them revealed various powders and pills stored within. “Okay, they’re not labeled. How do we know which ones to use?”

“Just set them down and give me a few minutes, John,” she said. “The moon’s up, now. You could probably use the time to regain a bit of qi. Cycling it will help you heal faster, too, I think.”

I sighed and sat down beside the injured woman. I could feel the moon beating down on me, and I tried to focus on the sensation. Worrying about Jing wouldn’t help. Hell, I wasn’t even sure why I was so worried about her. It wasn’t like she’d been all that great to me, and she just wanted me gone so her father would pay attention to her again.

The thing was, while I was a killer, I wasn’t a sociopath. Some people in my profession were, of course, and it had its advantages. If you literally didn’t care if someone died, killing them was a lot easier. There were times early in my career when I’d wished I could be like that, such as the first time I’d had to execute a woman. That hadn’t exactly been fun. There were downsides to it, too, though. The sociopaths I’d met usually started to enjoy their work too much. Since they felt no guilt from killing, they began to take pleasure in it, instead. That made them sloppy and careless, and carelessness always led to a bad end.

So, while I didn’t exactly like Jing, I didn’t want her to die, either. She wasn’t a bad person; she just had a minor Electra complex. My conscience was battered, bruised, and barely clinging to life, but it still existed. Leaving her to die would make me feel guilty, at least if there was something I could have done to save her.

Plus, if I did that, her father would likely kill me as quickly as the woman I’d driven off could have if she hadn’t been playing around.

“Master,” a voice jarred me from my thoughts, and I opened my eyes to see a woman kneeling before me, her head bowed, and her hands clasped.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“Master,” she repeated.

“Umm, I’m not anyone’s master,” I told her.

“But you are. You slew the Chief and his guards. You drove off the true practitioner who truly ruled here. And you freed us from our bondage.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” I shook my head.

“It means that you saved our lives, and now, those lives are yours to do with as you wish,” the woman said, her head still bowed. “Instruct us, and we will obey.”

“Well, I don’t want you to spend them…the way you were,” I said quickly. “That’s for damn sure.”

“Thank you, Master,” she said softly. “And yet, we owe you a life debt. We must have a way to repay it, to regain what little honor we might still possess.”

I sat there, my mind racing. I couldn’t bring these women back to the farm, but at the same time, I couldn’t exactly set them loose in the wilderness. The first giant emu or scorpion they met would have them all for breakfast, probably literally. “If you could go anywhere, where would it be?” I asked her curiously.

“I would return to my home, the great city of the Sunrise Moon, Master,” she replied. “I have family there, and they would take me in.” She hesitated. “Although they may not accept my child.”

“You have a kid?”

“I carry one, yes,” she nodded. “Most of us do, Master.”

“How far away is it?”

“Nearly three days journey, Master. It is a road I could not walk, however, as the beasts of the world would devour me.” She hesitated. “I care little for my life, in truth, but that does not mean I am ready for my next turning of the wheel.”

I interpreted that to mean that while she wasn’t super happy with how her life had gone, she wasn’t quite ready to die. I honestly couldn’t blame her for either of those. Sometimes, living is harder than dying, but even a screwed-up life can be sweet.

“Would all of the women, here, be okay going to that city? Or is there a closer one?”

“We are, all of us, taken while either traveling from the Sunrise Moon or to it, so all of us have one tie or another to that city, Master.”

I sighed. “Then I’ll have to get you there, I guess. First, though, I need to see what I can do about my companion, here.”

“Of course, Master. I will pass word to the others. We are all certainly eager to leave this place.”

“John, I think I have it figured out,” Sara said. I tried not to groan. I hadn’t had a chance to really regain my qi at all – or even to heal – but at least I hadn’t been totally bored.

“Okay, well, let me see what I can do to help her, and then we’ll figure you out,” I told the kneeling woman. She bowed her head low to me, rose, and walked off into the darkness. I hadn’t even considered the problem of the captive women, but the fact was, there was definitely a problem. Again, part of me wished I was sociopathic enough to just let them die, but I wasn’t. I’d have trouble walking away and knowing that I’d be condemning them to become food for something that lived nearby. I rose to my feet and looked at the not-really-there woman, who pointed to a bottle with a single, blue stripe on the side filled with similarly colored powder.

“This one should help close her wounds,” she said, then pointed to another bottle, one with a yellow circle on it. “And this one should stimulate her enough to wake her up. Once she’s awake, she can work to clear the poison herself.” She then pointed to a bottle with a green blotch. “And this one should help you to heal, which it looks like you could use.”

“Yeah, I suppose I could.” I swallowed one of the green pills she indicated for me, then focused on Jing. I applied the powder, sprinkling it liberally onto the woman’s wounds. The powder hissed and bubbled where it struck, but the wounds beneath coagulated instantly, and some of the darkness surrounding them seemed to ease. Afterward, I pried her jaws open and slipped a small, round, yellow pill into her mouth. The moment it touched her tongue, her eyes fluttered, and she drew in a deep, sharp breath.

“Xu…” she whispered, staring at me. “What…?”

“Don’t talk,” I told her firmly. “You’ve been poisoned. You need to try and clear it.”

“Too…much…,” she said weakly. “Need…father.”

“I’ll get you to him, then,” I told her. “You just do what you can while we travel, okay?”

“Yes…try.” She closed her eyes, but her breathing didn’t become deeper or more regular. I assumed that meant she was meditating rather than passed out.

I spun as I heard a sound behind me. My hands flew up into a guarding stance; if one of the raiders was still alive, they weren’t going to be in good shape. I might be able to take one alive, to get information from them…

I relaxed as I realized it was just the woman I’d been speaking with before. The sound had been her kneeling again, and she waited, her head lowered. I realized that things were a lot more complicated than I thought. I had to get Jing back to her father, but I couldn’t leave these women here alone, either…

“You might be able to collapse the entrance into the quarry, John,” Sara told me, pointing back in the direction where we’d first encountered the raiders. “That would probably keep random beasts from investigating for a couple days, at least. Enough time for you to get back here if you wanted.”

“So, I need to take my companion back to her farm,” I told the kneeling woman awkwardly.

“Yes, master, I overheard. You must save her life; she fought for us, as well. We will make our way as best we can.”

“I don’t think that’s a great idea,” I shook my head. “I want you to stay here, in the quarry, until I return in a day or so.”

“These bodies will attract beasts, master,” she protested. “If we remain here, we will be killed.”

“I’ll seal off the entrance into this place before I go,” I told her. “It won’t keep the beasts away forever, but it should give me time to get her to her farm and come back. When I return, I’ll escort you to your city.”

“My thanks, master,” she replied, bowing her head so low it almost touched the ground.

“Thank me when we actually reach your city,” I snorted. “Lots of things can go wrong between now and then.”

“I have faith that you will protect us,” she said simply, then rose and looked around. “While you are away, we will attempt to put out the fires and perhaps place the bodies of the vermin out of sight. This is not a pleasant place at the moment.”

“No, it’s not,” I admitted. “Now, I really need to get going. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Of course, master,” she bowed once more before rising and walking away.

It took a couple tries to get Jing into a fireman’s carry over my shoulders, but fortunately, it wasn’t the first time I’d carried an unresponsive body. It was the first time I’d had to run with one, but I would make do. If I could carry the load of rocks her father had forced me to during training, I could carry her. I channeled moonlight into my legs, back, and head, then headed out of the ravine at my best pace. As Sara suggested, a few well-placed punches with my brass knuckles collapsed enough of the wall on one side of the entrance path to block it off. With that complete, I turned and set off into the darkness. I had no idea where I was going, but Sara did, and she guided me back along the hills toward the farm.

The hours sped by as I ran, and I felt the change in Jing’s body when she passed out again. She went even limper on my shoulders, her weight making me stumble slightly before I regained my stride. “Should I give her another of those pills?” I asked Sara.

“No, it might hurt her. You’re close enough to the farm that she should be okay.”

“How do you know all that?” I asked curiously. “Did your analysis of this world include how its alchemy worked?”

“I told you, alchemy is a magical process, at least the way you define magic, John. It’s almost like crystallizing magic into solid form. In this world, it seems that means drawing the natural qi from various plants and substances and combining them in a matrix to perform a specific function.” She must have sensed my confusion because she added, “It’s like a solidified spell.”

“And you figured out the spells?”

“Oh, no, they’re far too complex for that. I’d need days to work them out. However, I could deduce enough of the base components to get a sense of what each one does.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Well, it’s like the difference between knowing what a weapon is used for and being able to make one.”

That made sense. I could use guns, and I could field strip and reassemble an M16 in under a minute, but I couldn’t machine one from steel stock or anything. “So, wait, will what you’ve figured out help me if I decide to learn alchemy?”

“Well, it might help me keep you from making a mistake, but I’d need time to break down the structure of a powder or pill and even more time to reverse-engineer how that structure was built. So…eventually?”

That was good enough for me.

I raced on into the darkness, finally arriving at the farm just as false dawn was appearing over the eastern hills. “Teacher?” I called at the house as I arrived. “Teacher! Jing needs help!”

Instead of the old man, an equally old woman appeared at the door. “Jing?” the woman said, her round face pale and her eyes wide. “What has happened to my Jing?”

“We were clearing the quarry,” I panted. “She challenged the Chief to combat, and he gave her qi poisoning. I need her father to…”

“Hush,” the woman scolded me, moving to stand beside Jing. She touched the woman’s face briefly and shook her head. “It is bad, but not so far along as it could have been.” She frowned at me. “You were at the quarry? The poison should have sunk far more deeply into her in that time. Was she still awake when you started the journey?”

“Well, she wasn’t, but I gave her one of those little, yellow pills to wake her up. That way, she could try and clear the poison herself.”

“Wise of you,” the woman said, touching one of Jing’s wounds. “It seems that you also knew to use the Minor Healing Powder to seal her wounds and prevent more qi from entering.” She looked up at me. “How did you know this?”

“I – it was something one of my teachers told me,” I quickly lied.

“Hmm,” she said noncommittally, obviously not convinced. “Well, bring her into my workshop, and we will make her well.”

“Your workshop?” I repeated. “I thought it was the old – I mean, my teacher’s.”

She laughed. “No, he is but my student. A fine one, but his focus is the Heavenly Path, not the art of medicine. I am the true master of that art.”

“But – but Jing said that her father made the pills that healed me,” I protested.

“And that was true, for my crafts are for trade, not for casual use. Between Wader-in-the-Morning-Water’s students and my medicines, we never lack for anything. Now, lay her down here.”

I gently placed the woman on the ground and started to back up, but the old woman beckoned me closer. “You have some skill and knowledge of medicines, strange one,” she said. “Let us see how quickly you learn. Watch and listen, and I will instruct you in how to craft a medicine to purge the poison from my daughter.” She glanced at me. “Pay close attention, as there will be a test at the end. First, we must select the appropriate base material for our creation. Pure water is, of course, an option, but it is a lesser one, and we need a greater creation. Therefore, we will start with noble water, that which is infused with the essence of life itself…”

I watched and listened as the woman explained why she chose the cauldrons she used, which plants and minerals would draw out foreign qi and encourage Jing to absorb her own. She talked about cauldron temperatures, specific stirring patterns, and the exact moments to add in various elements. When she’d finished, she placed her foul-smelling, soupy mess into a pot, sealed it shut, and waited while steam hissed out of it. When the steam finally abated, she removed the lid and took out a single, oblong pill the thickness of my pinky and about half as long.

“That’s going to be hard to swallow,” I pointed out. “Especially when she’s unconscious.”

“Then it is good that is not the method I planned to apply this medicine,” she laughed. “Please, turn her over.”

I froze when I realized what she meant, then hesitantly flipped the woman over. Her mother reached for the waist of her silk trousers, and I quickly turned away. I definitely didn’t want to watch that!

The old woman laughed at my discomfiture. “While I apply the medicine, since watching makes you so uncomfortable, Xu Xing, you can answer my questions. What was the stirring pattern of the silver cauldron mixture?”

“Thirteen stirs to the right, followed by two to the left, repeated, with an extra stir to the left after every four patterns,” I responded quickly as Sara supplied me the answer. Sure, it was cheating, but then, expecting me to memorize as much as she was asking wasn’t exactly fair. As far as I was concerned, I was just leveling the playing field.

“Very good. What is the reason for using crystalline fire?”

“The fire purifies the mixture and makes sure that it doesn’t introduce any unwanted qi.”

“Excellent,” she said, and her voice sounded impressed. “And why did I cross my fingers while stirring the third potion?”

“Um, you didn’t, I don’t think,” I answered slowly. “You held the stirrer with two fingers, and kept your pinky out to the side.”

“Impressive,” she nodded. “You may turn back, now.”

I turned back around, and while Jing still lay face-down, at least her pants were back on. The black lines still marred her arms, but she seemed to be breathing more easily. “Is it working?” I asked.

“Of course, it is. As I told you, I am a master of medicine. My creations always work.”

I snorted. “I’ve heard lots of people call themselves masters of things over the years. It isn’t always the case.”

“Ah, but those do not have a Master Accreditation from the Amber Teardrop Society,” she laughed, producing a shimmering, jade medallion from beneath her shirt. “I, however, do.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I admitted.

“You have not heard of Amber Teardrop?” she asked with surprise. “I am certain they have a vast presence in every city. If you have dealt in medicinal supplies, there is a great chance that you were dealing with one of their members.”

I shrugged. “I never asked,” I lied easily. “It doesn’t matter to me who makes my medications, so long as they work.”

“You must always ask for an Accreditation medallion,” she scolded me, her voice like iron. “Like most crafting societies, the Amber Teardrop holds its members to a strict standard. A pharmacologist who gives patients substandard medicine will be brought before a review board and likely stripped of their status. If a crafter does not have such a medallion, there is no guarantee that what they give you is not a deadly toxin or drug.”

“I’ll remember that,” I nodded, then looked at Jing. “How long will it be until she’s well?”

“Some hours,” the woman shrugged. “Do not worry. My husband will certainly continue your training while she recovers. He will also wish to hear the tale of how she got this way.”

“And I can’t wait to tell him, but I also left a group of women at the quarry. They were being held captive by the – the people there, and I told them I’d escort them back to their city.”

“Then you must do so. However, while I do not wish to bring ill fortune on them – left alone, it is likely that they will be devoured by beasts before you can return.”

I shook my head. “I blocked the quarry entrance. They should be fine for a day or two.”

“Then you have time to speak to my husband and let my daughter recover,” she said firmly. “You can travel to the quarry together.” She hesitated for a moment. “In fact, it is likely that my husband will instruct Jing to join you on your trek to the city. She has not seen one, yet, and it would be most instructive.”

I found the old man on the hill where we usually started our morning training, seated in his usual lotus position, his eyes closed. I trudged up the hill and practically plopped down before him. He didn’t flinch or open his eyes, but his face took on a disapproving expression.

“You behave as if your mission were a failure, Xu Xing,” he said slowly. “Did you fail to clear the quarry, as I instructed?”

“No, teacher, but…”

“I see that you are here without my daughter. Has she gone for her next turn of the wheel?”

“No, teacher, but she’s hurt…”

“Is her injury something that can be healed?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“Then be calm. Your mind is in turmoil, and that allows your dantian to fill with impure qi. Focus on your breathing. There will be time for tales when you have regained your balance.”

I wanted to take the old man and shake him, to yell at him that there were more important things that needed doing, but as I thought about it, a wave of exhaustion flowed over me. I wasn’t sleepy – I hadn’t slept a wink since opening my meridians – but I was wrung out, both physically and emotionally.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My brain was in too much of a tizzy to build my cultivation spiral, so instead, I just let my thoughts wander. I wasn’t really given to introspection – my soul and psyche weren’t exactly the nicest places to visit, to be honest – but I always made a point of reviewing any hit to see where it could have been improved and how I could have done it better. Since the quarry had basically just been one, huge execution, it made sense to look back at it and see where there was room for improvement.

My first intuition was that I could have done a better job – well, basically everywhere. I hadn’t treated the quarry like I would a hit, not from the very start. I never went after a mark without information. I watched them, learned their habits, memorized their surroundings and the people nearest them to see who might prove dangerous. I knew my mark better than they knew themselves, so that when the moment for the kill came, it was clean, surgical, and precise.

I hadn’t had the faintest idea what I was getting into at the quarry. I didn’t know the ‘vermin’ were people; I didn’t know their numbers or capabilities; I didn’t know the layout of the place. Wim hadn’t given me any of that info, true, but I hadn’t asked, either. I’d thought we were fighting rats or something and had been overconfident.

Even so, once we arrived, I should have spent more time surveilling the camp. If I’d taken a day, I probably would have realized that the Chief was stronger than he seemed. A few days, and I would likely have spotted the woman and her lackeys. I could have ambushed patrols and hunting parties they sent out, capturing people and interrogating them before killing them, and I would have learned a ton of useful facts. I also would have had time to come up with a better plan, one that didn’t result in most of the camp burning down. Sure, that would have left the women to the not-so-tender mercies of the raiders for longer, but…the simple fact was, they’d already lived through that for some amount of time. A few more days probably wouldn’t have made things worse. It was a harsh thing to realize, but it was probably the truth.

Of course, I wouldn’t have gotten those days. Jing wouldn’t have given them to me. I felt a flash of anger at the woman; if she’d just followed the plan, things would have gone a lot better. The plan was to kill enough of the raiders to push the Chief into sending a party out to hunt us down, at which point we would have gone after him together. We still would have had to face the super-powered woman, of course, but working together, we might have been able to take her – or, at least, to drive her off without me getting my ribs cracked. Jing hadn’t been able to restrain herself, though. She had to be all honorable, and that had almost gotten us both killed. It had also made dealing with the women vastly more complicated, since I had to choose between saving her and saving them.

That was another problem. I had no clue what we were going to do with the women. I wasn’t good at taking care of people. I’d never really done that with my little brother, growing up, and since then, I’d made a point of not keeping anyone in my life that needed taking care of. My attitude had always been that so long as I took care of myself, everyone else was on their own. Now, I had a whole group of women depending on me, and I had no idea what to do for them. I didn’t even know how many of them there were – or any of their names. Why the hell had I volunteered to escort them to their city? Just because I felt sorry for them? The old man had been the one to send me on this mission. They should have been his problem, not mine.

I let the thoughts rage through my head, then went back and analyzed what I should have done differently. First, I should have gotten more intel before agreeing to go to the quarry. Second, once we were there, I should have scouted ahead without Jing. I probably could have kept from being caught, and that first fight had put us on the clock. If I’d avoided that, we could have taken our time and killed them off a few at a time. Third, I realized that I was seriously lacking in ways to kill people without being in close. If I’d had access to poison, I could have at least disabled half the camp. It would have been easy to waylay one of them, steal their clothing, and gain access to their food. I needed a ranged weapon of some kind, as well – either that or a technique that didn’t require quite as much qi and wasn’t as flashy as Sun’s Scorching Ray. With that, I might have been able to kill the Chief before even entering the camp, which would have sent the whole place into chaos.

Going through the familiar ritual of picking the last job apart calmed me down significantly, to the point that I was finally able to build my qi spiral and start bringing energy up from my dantian to be purified. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, but finally, the old man roused me from my meditation.

“Is your mind clearer?” he asked me simply.

“Yes, teacher,” I admitted.

“Good. Then tell me of your adventure in the quarry. Leave out no detail, no matter how unimportant. For my daughter to return in the state I saw her was beyond unexpected, and I must know how such occurred.”

I went ahead and told him the story, from the moment we first set out to when I got back to the farm. I didn’t mention Sara, of course, but I did tell him that I’d managed to project my qi out of my hands. His eyes widened a bit at that, but he didn’t interrupt me once during the story. When I finished, he sat back, stroking his thin beard and staring into the distance.

“Show me the cloth which you found, Xu Xing,” he finally instructed. I took it out of my pocket and handed it to him. He examined it carefully, front and back, then returned it to me.

“That is the sigil of the School of Earthly Fires,” he told me. “It is one of the minor schools, far less powerful both politically and in its membership than the major schools. However, it is still a significant force, one that cannot be underestimated.”

He continued to stare off into the distance as he spoke. “I know but a little of this school,” he admitted. “I attended the School of the Brilliant Desert Sea, and the members of Earthly Fires were neither our rivals nor allies. I know that members of their school focus on the metal and fire elements, and that they can use their qi to harden their flesh until it is like iron. However, what this devotee spoke of…” He hesitated. “It is vastly troubling, Xu Xing, troubling enough that perhaps it is time I set aside my seclusion and rejoined the world.”

“I’m honestly not sure what you mean, teacher,” I told him.

“I mean that I will join you on your journey to the city of the Sunrise Moon,” he told me decisively. “Once my daughter has recovered, we will travel to the quarry to recover the women you rescued, and we will all together guide them to the city. There, perhaps we will learn more of this dark secret.”