“Jai?” Toi said, gaining my attention as she manifested in the room where Clement and I were talking.

She had been observing the spirit cleansing site. I’d asked her to keep an eye out for anything that might happen. The cleansing ritual taking place next door to my family’s house had left me more nervous than I would typically have been. That she was back was a good thing. If there had been a cause for alarm, she would have sent a message along our astral connection to let me know so I could return as quickly as possible.

“Do you know you are being spied on?” She asked, now that she had made her presence known.

“What?” I said in confusion. “Where? How?”

Toi moved toward the mantle of a fireplace, one that had been built when the Keep had been established. It was a decorative affectation. There was no reason to have a fireplace in a town located on the equator. Their temperatures throughout the Keep were controlled by cooling arrays.

The fireplace was one of the few reminders that remained of Lord Chon’s hedonism. It was an elaborate piece of marble, something rare in this corner of the world, expensive, and a waste of resources. But for Lord Chon, it would have served as a status symbol, proof of his wealth, and a demonstration of how he prioritized spending that wealth.

I’m not sure why it wasn’t removed when I’d had the Bastion Keep remolded, perhaps because those in charge of renovation thought it was tasteful enough to present an image of understated wealth. Or maybe my mandate for frugality had played a part. It might have just been cheaper to leave it in place than to remove it and repair the wall.

“Here,” she said, pointing at one of the embellishments that had been molded into the columns supporting the mantle. “An array has been hidden here, acting as a Weir. It has created a pool of essence that acts as a damn, diverting the flow of Qi to funnel the sights and sounds of the surrounding area. This Weir is the focus point. I can detect a few side rivulets of information that are being collected from other parts of the Keep.

“It is storing the information that it gathers until the Weir is triggered and the information can be gathered. Or, as in this case, the person with the key to the Weir is using the device in real-time.”

“Interesting,” Clement said as he got up to examine the spot Toi had pointed out. “You say it is active? I wonder if someone is watching now?”

“They should have been, but I have a block in place; until I remove it, they will see nothing or hear anything.”

“I would be most interested in finding out who it is that is spying. Or if anyone is?” I replied, standing to examine the spot myself. “I wonder if this is some leftover bit of insurance the smugglers had and used against Chon? Something that has been active and never noticed, something that was forgotten by whoever had it installed?”

“This formation is created to be turned on and off. That it is on suggests that someone is watching,” Toi informed us.

“I can work with that,” Clement said. “As I mentioned, my Dao deals with balance. I act as a mediator so that both sides receive equitable remuneration. In this instance, since someone would spy on us, it seems the scales require they be balanced, so you have the same opportunity.”

I felt Clement extend his Qi to encapsulate the Weir. My ears popped as the atmosphere in the room changed and water and air Qi coalesced, transforming the wall above the mantel into a portal, into a viewing screen that flickered to life with the sounds and sights of four individuals in masks.

“What happened?” An obviously altered voice belonging to a person wearing a Butterfly mask asked.

Each individual was masked. The Butterfly. A Skull. A Crow. And Harlequin. The room they were in seemed more like a naturally occurring cave than a constructed room.

“I don’t know,” the person wearing the Harlequin mask replied, “the Weir is still active, the cores recently refreshed and at full power. There is no reason we aren’t getting an image.”

“What about a secondary Weir?” The Crow individual demanded.

“There are no secondary Weirs in that room,” Harlequin replied. “That stupid cultivator removed or destroyed the rest when remodeling.”

“We have no other way to spy on this meeting? Crow, what about your bonded? Can they get a view inside a window?” Skull asked.

“Probably, if they were near. But keeping a murder of crows focused on anything not shiny while so far away is almost impossible. No matter how talented a Beast Tamer you are,” Crow replied.

“Do you think she found it?” Butterfly asked.

“Probably,” Skull replied, “we knew it would happen eventually. What is more important is, do we have anyone still in a position that we can control? They were speaking of creating controlled circles to form contracts with spirits. We need to find out how that is done and if we can replicate it.”

“There are only a few low-level bureaucrats left, a handful of dock workers, and some support personnel, mostly cleaning and cooking left. Not even a dozen people in total,” Harlequin replied.

“That councilor of hers, Gwen, has been thorough in rooting out the remaining people we had in place. They were too lax in protecting their ties to the smuggling under Lord Chon. They never expected him to be removed and for a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator to claim the land as her barony.”

“How does losing this connection affect our plans?” Crow asked.

“It doesn’t,” Skull was quick to reply. “We lost access to the Mystic Realm, but the rift expansion has proceeded without the Sect becoming aware that the permanent joining of both worlds has been forming under Mount Krackus.”

“I think we might make use of the Weir,” Clement said, grinning devilishly. “What do you say about having Toi restore function and feeding those watching information?”

“That might work,” I said consideringly, “maybe even bait a trap?”

“They seem very interested in the spirit contract we discussed. That might work to serve as bait for any trap we might come up with,” Clement replied thoughtfully.

“I could mention that I am having a building created, one that will have a permanent Spirit contracting circle inscribed.”

“Maybe suggest that you can only form a limited number of contracts,” Clement added, “the formation requires ingredients from the Mystic Realm to operate, and you only have enough materials to imbue the flux when creating the array for ten uses.

“Once ten people have formed a contract, the building will stand empty until the next time the Mystic Realm opens, and you can gather more ingredients.”

“They should watch or have the remaining people they have in the city watch as it is constructed. I think we can use this opportunity to identify the remaining spies. And if they decide to risk infiltrating the building to attempt to form their own contracts, we might be able to capture the entire group.”