“The last time I was here, I’ll be honest, I thought that they would listen to me. I thought that they would listen to reason,” Fa Za said.

The two elders strolled into town, flanked by Grace alone as their heavily armed bodyguard.

“Let me guess, they didn’t want to hear it?”

“Worse. I was made to sit and watch as three sisters one by one sang, and played music to entertain me. I think that they were far more interested in my money than in anything I had to say.”

Under his robes, his right hand felt on the small chunky potion. It hadn’t lost its color, and he was getting to the point where it was becoming more of a nuisance than anything else. He remembered the whiskey he’d hidden in his negative space before and without thinking, he reached in and pulled it out.

“You’ve got to teach me that trick, elder,” Grace said.

He eyed her carefully.

“The negative space itself is something that you can learn at your level. Talk to me once we’re done and I’ll explain the specifics.”

Briefly, he considered giving Grace a swig of his drink or trying to swap it out with his potion. Eccentric older men, the kind that his father hung around with often drank from strange containers. Containers that made him retch as a youth when he recalled the green pulpy contents.

"That must be one of those young-age vitality potions I keep hearing about," Jessica said, "Mind if I take a swig?"

Fa Za slapped all of his muscles silly to get them to stay in line. She was just going to take this from him? If she drank it, it would solve so many of his problems.

"...Sure, Elder have a swig."

She grabbed it greedily, drinking down what he thought was the potion he'd wanted her to drink all along. And then doubt crept into his mind.

"Oh! This is great! It's like orange juice! What does it do... ah! I feel it working already!"

Jessica glowed briefly, closing her eyes. Fa Za moved quickly positioning himself directly in front of her, and as her eyes fluttered open he hoped that the effect of the love potion would be strong.

A little bit too late, he realized that the love potion- the one that he was certain was a love potion definitely had pulp.

And she had drunk a potion that definitely didn't have any pulp.

One meant for him.

Fa Za bit his lip so hard that he started bleeding.

***

There was no doubt about it. Jess wasn’t feeling herself as she walked into the town. There was a piece of her that still held out that Rahelish wouldn’t show up here.

It was a fantasy of hers that she could go in and convince these people when Fa Za, with all of his might, could not. In a culture that emphasized martial might over everything else, possibly to the detriment of society, his might was more than equal to the task.

His mouth however wasn’t.

“You’re going to let me do all the talking here, once you do the introductions?” Jess said.

“Naturally,” Fa Za said.

He had been eyeing her carefully since they’d entered the town. She’d wondered what that was about, but realized that she was about to, once again beat him at her own game if she succeeded.

Eventually, she would play a game of his choice.

“And you’re sure that you don’t want to marry one of the Matriarch’s daughters just to seal the deal?” She said, testing the waters.

Fa Za was silent as they reached the hut he’d indicated. It was centrally located, and he sighed at the door. Almost like he’d already given up.

“When things get hard, do you just give up?” Jess asked, “You’ve never met an obstacle you can’t surmount, have you?”

“If I can’t cultivate or punch my way through life…” He said, trailing off. Jess had the image of a puppy, having peed in the house getting chastised in her mind.

“What then is life, eh?”

Fa Za opened his mouth to speak and was stopped when the flap at the front of the door opened. An elderly woman peeked out.

“Ah, Elder Fa Za! You’ve returned to marry one of my daughters, have you? And you’ve brought another Elder to officiate? Let me break out our best tea!”

The woman ushered the two of them inside, and as the flaps closed behind them, Grace took a position by the door.

***

“The nerve of that woman!”

“She was just like you were at that age, dear.”

“That doesn’t mean that I need to like it!”

“She’s on a mission, just like you were when you were after me.”

“I suppose you’re right. Still! It’s a matter of disrespect! She has more regard for those Stone Fish villagers than me? Unacceptable!”

“Dear, didn’t you want to fight for the poor and downtrodden when you were her age?”

“Yes, but…”

“And didn’t you take this role as an Elder to bring up people like her, mold them in your image?”

“I can see what you’re getting at...”

“And don’t you want her to succeed especially if she brings our son along with her?”

“I supposed-”

“Wife.”

“...”

“They will come back.”

“She had better.”

***

“It’s out of the question. This village will not just get up and leave. I forbid it,” the matriarch said.

“At least, let us ask the people if they want to move out of the path of certain death,” Jess replied, “It would be the least you could do. They deserve the chance to move while they still can.”

“You have no proof that this beast is coming, and you probably just want to take over the town when we leave, anyway.”

Jess looked up at the center of the large animal skin hut. It was a bit infuriating. First, the Heaven’s Mountain Sect wasn’t listening to her and now this? She could see how Fa Za had a tough time with this crowd, but if she was honest with herself, he hadn’t been the same. In fact he looked like he was sweating when she stared at him.

“What?” he said.

“Elder Fa Za, you’re sweating.”

His face was immediately stoic as he stood up.

“Pardon me, Elder, Matriarch,” he said as he stepped outside.

Jess watched as the tent flapped back, moving with the wind.

“He does things like that a lot,” Jess said, turning back to the matriarch.

A wave of qi usage flashed from outside and Jess stood up.

The flap opened again and Fa Za held it up.

“We’ve got proof. Open your eyes.”

***

“Have you thought about what would happen if the Elders son was right?”

“About the divine beast? No. Hey, watch your broom!”

“Sorry, the damn thing keeps wanting to turn in one direction. I’m guessing it wants to lay west to east.”

“That’s weird. Uh.. strange question, have you seen any rats since we’ve arrived?”

“No, not really. I’m guessing that they haven’t made their presence known.”

“But no rats? That’s just weird.”

“Yeah, I guess we could ask but it seems like something so minor…”

***

Miles away from the outer walls of Heaven’s mountain Sect, it moved. Ahead of it, lines of its vanguard began to run. It would soon reach the ocean, one way of the other. The guard shuddered, looking west as he raised the alarm.

***

Ling Za alternated between grief and rage. Her boy had finally grown up, and made so much of himself. And he’d made strong friends as well! He hadn’t lived with them for years, but now she was acutely aware that he was snubbing them on their trip.

Rock demons or no, she wasn’t about to wait around.

She stood by the door to leave.

“Excuse me, if I may, my lovely wife, but I believe that Fa Za can handle himself out there just fine.”

“I was just going to take a walk,” she huffed.

“I see that you’ve somehow acquired twenty of our fourth and fifth level servants for your little walk. Are you sure that you’re just going on a walk?”

Ling Za stretched out underneath the Jade floral designs that has been placed around the ceremonial Za family chambers. She looked to the twenty cultivators that stoof behind her, waiting on her words.

“Just a walk. I need to clear me head.”

***

“That’s enormous!”

The Matriarch looked up as she stepped out from the flaps. The divine beast was far enough to be seen, but not close enough to flatten the village to the ground just from it’s presence.

“Will you listen to us now?” Fa Za yelled at her.

The pale white woman cried as she watched the beast. It cleared the clouds and was clearly far away. She fell to her knees in front of him and sobbed.

Behind her, her three children wailed. Her husband collapsed, prone on the ground next to her.

“Fa Za. This isn’t the time to bring up an old grudge,” Jessica said to him, her face a mask of calm.

Fa Za raged. This time they listened and it was only because the beast was nearly on their doorstep.

He punched down into the ground. Yelling, his fist sunk deep into the dirt.

Abruptly he realized how silly he looked and then removed his hand.

"Fa Za?" Jessica blanched and took a knee,"I'm not feeling so hot myself. I think I'll just curl up and take a nap."

She yawned and fell over from standing.

"No no no!" Grace said, nearly in tears herself.

The ground shook as little cracks formed in the dirt.

"Can you help her? I think that something is approaching," Grace said.

Fa Za nodded. He’d made the mistake himself. He would deal with the fallout