As the steady blade pressed against the side of her neck, Tenjo wiling every muscle in her body to stop moving. The slightest motion from the one holding the sword would mean her death, and she had no chance of avoiding it in her current position.

Kyu-Son looked down at her, contempt burning in her eyes.

"If you want to live, I have some questions for you," She spat. "Fail to answer them and I will not hesitate to fill this teahouse with your blood, and then apologize to the owner later."

Tenjo said nothing in response, unwilling to risk moving her throat even the amount required by speech. Thankfully, her silence was taken as agreement.

"Firstly, you're going to tell me who you work for," She continued.

She moved the edge of the sword just a fraction of an inch away. Tenjo looked down at the distance between her hand and her dagger. It was too far, and even if she managed to draw it she wasn't in a position to strike anywhere vital on her opponent.

"I don't work for anyone," She said.

The blade returned to being pressed against her neck, this time sending a lone trickle of blood down it where the razor edge split her skin.

"Answer the question,” Her voice was tight, each word dripping with unconcealed rage.

"I told you, I'm not working for anyone," Tenjo said. "I don't even know who you are, or why you've decided that I'm your enemy in the first place."

Kyu-Son glared down at her. "Then tell me who gave you those bandages you have wrapped around your arm, and where I can find them."

"He's dead," She answered. "I killed him, and took these bandages in order to treat the wound that he gave my arm."

As she put her actions out in the open, Tenjo felt another wave of unreasonable guilt. She had killed him, and then stolen from his corpse. What more, she had killed him with an underhanded surprise attack, after he likely thought the battle was already over.

Even as she was wracked with guilt, she couldn't help but to notice that the sword had drifted farther away than last time, creating a slightly larger opening if she were to move now. It was almost large enough that she would have time to draw her knife and strike if she used the technique.

The girl threatening her had gone still, and for the first time some of the rage had vanished from her face as she seemed to think about the reply that she had received. After a few seconds, she spoke again.

"Then prove it."

Tenjo slowly lifted her left arm up, and then used her uninjured hand to carefully unwrap the bandages, revealing the half-healed gouge in her flesh beneath them. As the injury lost its support, she could feel the damaged flesh sting again, the torn muscles still stressed from the force that had been matched against just minutes before.

Kyu-Son had gone still again, teeth tight together as her sword wavered, now perhaps just far enough away that Tenjo would have time to draw and strike before she could bring it back. Her hand crept back down towards her waist, disguising the motion with the lowering of her arm.

Then a source of energy appeared at the end of the street, and Tenjo turned towards it, missing her chance. The blade started to return to her throat, and then semi-transparent ropes of green flew through the air, wrapping around both of them before becoming solid.

Even with the full strength of her condensed aura, they barely budged at her attempts to break free. The ropes all led back to one location, the extended left hand of Meng, the guard she had met at the gate.

They all grew shorter as he approached, the length being absorbed into his palm with each step he took. He stopped just outside the teahouse yard, and a ball of yellow light slowly materialized in his other hand.

"I'm going to need to put a stop to this," He said. "I can't allow you to hold your fights in the middle of the town. People live here, you know?"

"It's the right of a disciple of the blade to duel other disciples," Kyu-Son said, still struggling against the bonds. "It's legally granted by the Emperor himself."

"That law only applies assuming that it won't cause problems for the local residents. You don't have the right to turn other people’s stores into your dueling grounds, or to put random townspeople at risk."

"I've eaten at your aunt Xiu's place a few times," He said. "I don't want to have to lock you away in a cell if I can help it."

The mage looked to Tenjo.

"You haven't even been in the city for an hour," He said. "I'm not sure if I should be apologizing to you for the trouble and hoping you don't get the wrong impression, or regretting the fact I let you in and throwing you out for starting trouble."

For the second time that day, she was left completely as a loss for how to respond to something.

"I'll try my best to not get into any more trouble, sir," She settled on. The sir was an afterthought, but it couldn't hurt to show some respect for the man who currently had her completely immobile and at his mercy.

He gave both of them a stare, and when it became clear neither one of them had anything more to add, Meng let the green energy unravel and fall off them, slowly melting away into the air as it did so. Noticeably, the yellow ball in his other hand remained, ominously humming as it pulsed slowly.

Tenjo stood up, brushing the dust from the knees and front of her robe. Rolling on the floor during the fight had only served to make her look like even more of a vagrant.

By the time she had collected her sword, her former enemy had already vanished, and a few hesitant people had already started to return to the teahouse. She didn’t look the guard in the eye as she passed by him on her way out.

As she made her way down the street, a growing feeling of lightheadedness started to come over her. Her minimal sleep and three days deficit of food had started to catch up with her, combined with the energy used to heal her arm and the effort of the fight.

By the time she had turned two corners, Tenjo was barely able to keep moving. Eventually, the black spots appearing in front of her eyes refused to vanish when she blinked, and her legs gave out under her as she pitched sideways against a wall.

She just hoped whoever lived here didn’t mind too much.

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Chapter end

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