The underneath of Panopticon was made entirely of rough purple stone, and was many times colder than the trapped heat of outer night. Keir Lao, again carried by Just Xin, saw the orphan enter, but could no longer find him.

Physically impenetrable fog covered the entrances to an endless number of immortal caves. Each was rented to a wealthy cultivator without a clan or sect in Panopticon, as a space to cultivate peacefully. The fog, a pure white, spilled to the branching halls with an ethereal chill.

Merchants sat sparsely throughout in meditative silence, not so much as cracking open an eye as Just Xin sped through. Customers were even sparser, moving with deliberation, mostly browsing. Lanterns, burning filled with fat, offered the only light.

“Have you been down here before?” Keir Lao whispered.

Just Xin shook his head.

Keir Lao wondered, Either the boy ran down here only to escape, or he has another purpose, maybe related to the orphans’ backup? Fleshy bloated vats of blood were the most common item he saw for sale. He could have ran anywhere to lose us. He ran here. There must be a reason. Meeting with other orphans on tasks, at least?

That, he figured, offered him a good question for a merchant. They passed by more than a few until Keir Lao noticed one he felt vaguely familiar, a middle-aged looking woman, a Spine-Haired demon, with hair spines thick and jet-black. She was meditating like the others, but idly petting a horned rabbit in her lap, and was surrounded by other reanimated magical beasts. A crane atop a miniature potted pine tree stood out. The undead beasts watched them approach with bloodshot eyes, in perfect sync. A sign read, Lin’s Puppets.

Keir Lao then recalled her. The last time he had been in Panopticon, he’d seen her speaking with Hellhound, accompanied by an equally bizarre menagerie. “Just Xin, let’s ask her for directions.”

Just Xin stopped, and lowered Keir Lao to the floor.

They approached Lin. Smiling, Keir Lao asked, “Honored Puppeteer Lin, I am a friend of Hellhound’s, and was hoping you could assist me; have you seen a boy pass by, and do you have an idea where he might have gone to meet with others?”

She remained meditating. Her puppets spoke distinctly in unison, artificially chipper, “What is he up to now? Hehehe.” Keir Lao’s skin crawled; he had never heard of magical beasts speaking in any tale. Even Just Xin flinched. “You’re impressed. Hehehehe. The boy did pass, and there is only one place sought here beyond the caves and halls. Follow the left hand wall and you’ll reach the industry.”

Keir Lao bowed, and Just Xin followed. “Thank you for your assistance, honored Puppeteer Lin.”

Her puppets laughed again, sound lingering behind them.

They kept left, eventually reaching something like a larger immortal cave entrance, but with a cyan fog they rushed through.

The underground room was filled with massive metal furnaces, cauldrons, and boilers, from floor to ceiling, clearly heated but with the room still cold. Sand to glass, plants to pills, and blood to blood were processed through them, run by a dizzying array of cultivators.

The outskirts of the room held merchants like the halls, but up and active, either selling raw materials or buying processed goods with alacrity. Servants jumped the purchases through massive holes in the ceiling, covered by the same cyan fog.

Keir Lao had trouble keeping track of anybody in the mess, and wondered how he would find the orphan. Explains part of why he chose here, and everyone is too busy to talk. There’s also no guards here. Not just us, but isn’t this a good place to avoid anyone noticing you? Keir Lao then paid closer attention to the merchants, and realized between the constant stream of buying and selling goods, they would sometimes make subtle and brief hand contact with their servants or customers.

Smuggling.

He realized the orphans must use the place to pawn their stolen goods. If there would be anyone interested in helping them, either it was a merchant who didn’t want to lose their patronage, or a cultivator they could buy the services of if they collected enough spirit stones. He further accounted for the theft from Gabriela, and thought it possible they were trying to sell whatever they stole.

The space was thundering with activity, but Keir Lao was listening for only one thing, the enthusiastic hustling of a merchant making insane profit. “Go where it’s loudest,” he had to shout directly in Just Xin’s ear.

It didn’t take long before they found the boy. He was next to two other orphans, a girl and an older boy, who was clutching a jade slip with a manic expression. Just Xin rushed towards them. The younger boy noticed with a panic, tapping the shoulders of the other two. They whispered something between themselves and put their hands together, the slip unseen between them. When they withdrew, each ran through a different corridor.

Keir Lao knew jade slips were not used unless the amount was truly staggering. He thought, Giving back the staff is useless. The orphans could purchase not only Gabriela’s death, but Just Xin’s and Keir Lao’s, for but offending them.

Without time to think it through, Keir Lao took a guess who had the slip, a one in three chance, and had Just Xin chase after the oldest boy, who was also the fastest of the three.

The boy glanced behind him. Blood began to trail from the corner of his mouth as he went faster still. Yet, Just Xin managed to catch up and tackled him, holding him with qi ribbons and peeling open his fists.

Empty.

His pockets, empty.

Empty, empty, empty!

Filled was Keir Lao’s mind with the dread of dying. The other orphans were already long gone with their money, and they would hire a cultivator, and that would mean Keir Lao’s death. “Why?!” he screamed into the boy’s face and, without thinking, raised his arms – and the staff – as he yelled.

His desperation echoed through the cold hall. The boy only whimpered, his eyes reflecting Keir Lao’s fear.

Just Xin let go of him, and he wasted no time in escaping. A palm rested onto Keir Lao’s shoulder, but he could not calm himself as he began to rant, “We need to go to the guards like the note said! We need to tell them about Gabriela, because that’s where the cultivator they hire is going first!” He pulled out Just Xin’s letter. “You didn’t write down where she is! That’s okay, that’s okay! We can get something to write it on the way back up!”

He looked up towards Just Xin, whose eyes were wet with forming tears. The hold on Keir Lao’s shoulder tightened.

“You don’t understand! It’s not about hurting the orphans! They have who knows how much money and are going to contract someone who could kill Gabriela in an instant! Then you and me, to tie up loose ends! You know how cultivators are! We need to alert the guards or we’re all dead! You’ll be dead! I’ll be dead!”

In half panic, half unwillingness, using the contract funds did not cross Keir Lao’s mind or lips.

Just Xin wavered. His grip loosened, tightened, loosened again. He wiped the tears from his eyes, and then Keir Lao’s tears. Just Xin nodded.

I was crying?

Only then did Keir Lao thoughts reform and extend. He took a breath, two, three, repressing his fear long enough to somewhat clear his mind. He said, “Immediately after, we should go there ourselves, to meet up with Gabriela and stop any orphans from being hurt.”

***

Gabriela’s mood had passed from irate, to merely exhausted. She had not slept at all the night before when watching over Keir Lao, and Lilli’s constant barrage of insults long ago slipped from infuriating to mind numbing. She stayed alert only so she did not accidentally kill her hostage.

“...and your uniform looks like you sleep in it!” Lilli exclaimed. How or why the teen felt like continuing her slander when her life was on the line, Gabriela did not know.

“Be silent,” she snapped for the first time in over half an hour.

“Aww, did you finally figure out nobody is coming to help you?” Lilli laughed, and the circle of orphans joined. “If you let me go, maybe I can convince them to go easy on you?”

Gabriela was going to respond again, but then shouting issued from afar. She focused in that direction, but made sure to keep an eye on Lilli.

A second later, orphans were knocked many meters high, flailing as they crashed back down. The others zipped away, fleeing. Lilli’s face grew solem, but with a sharp turn towards fearful as jets of white fire washed over the present children, leaving only charred corpses.

Unnecessary, now Just Xin will trust me less, Gabriela thought. Then she began to make out the figures through the smog. Oh, no.

With a sadistic glee he failed to conceal behind a stern expression, a Four-Eyed man moved into the now orphanless clearing. He barked to his troops, “Kill the rest,” and they ran back into the smog to obey. He then fixed himself towards Gabriela. “Why am I not surprised it’s the ever-incompetent Gabriela? Was getting your brother killed not enough?”

“Virgil,” she said, doing her best to not sound ungrateful towards her miserable officer from the war. She wasn’t out from the forbidden zone yet, where Many-Eyed gazes could barely penetrate, and where she could still end up an ‘unfortunate casualty’.