With a sizable blow struck to the Harmonious Citadel, Vari was quite happy to return to Xankeshan. “I’m glad the device worked,” she said to Catarina, “But it was not pleasant being unable to get a response. What if you didn’t show up? What if you didn’t bring sufficient forces?” She shook her head. “It was a lot of worrying that I couldn’t do anything about.”

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of a way to make it secure otherwise,” Catarina said. “If it had more complexity, hiding it would have been much more difficult.”

“I know,” Vari nodded seriously, “I’m just saying I don’t plan to do anything like that again. Not that I could. I’d have to come up with a whole new identity and hope the Harmonious Citadel didn’t tie me to either of my previous connections. Though they’d likely found out about myself in particular from our other plans.”

Catarina frowned, “We can try to stop it, if it’s a problem for you.”

“I don’t mind them hating me. Especially if it’s for a good reason. Releasing so many people from their secret excursion and spreading word of their failures… that’s a good cause. I don’t know if it will garner sympathy for the lower realms or inspire others to do their own raids, though. People are how they are, many more are opportunistic rather than sympathetic.”

“A large number of disorganized groups competing with each other can’t be worse than a few that have the strength and cohesion to actually pull it off,” Catarina said. “And there are enough people who have ascended that might take offense at their particular world coming under fire. They could flock to our banner or work against people on their own. Even if they just cut down a few people from a faction they come to dislike, it could be advantageous. Ultimately, I think it will be beneficial.”

“I don’t disagree,” Vari nodded. “And I don’t mind the Harmonious Citadel finding out about me… as long as nobody expects me to go back there. Though I’d really rather not draw the ire of the saints.”

“If they come to attack Xankeshan, we will either have advance warning of vast forces- or be able to hold long enough for reinforcements to arrive. That’s even if all the saints attack at once.”

“Eight Augmentation cultivators?” Vari asked.

“As far as I’m aware, Xankeshan fell to forces on the level of the Trigold Cluster and the Exalted Quadrant. Even with the formations in centuries of ruin and disrepair, it was sufficient to hold off one and drive away Everheart. We’re secure here. Outside…” Catarina shrugged. “We’ll just have to keep improving ourselves for that.”

-----

The ringing of hammer on anvil filled Chikere’s ears as she approached the forge. Even where she was, she could hardly bear to move forward due to the heat. She couldn’t imagine being inside. Would she burn to death? Unlikely, unless she let it happen. She could blast the heat away, but if she just tried to fend off the heat with her own energy… it might actually wear her down within a short time.

She got to an angle where she could just see Sadiq working on something unexpected. She watched him work, knowing he’d already sensed her and not wanting to throw off his rhythm. Eventually, he took the object on his anvil and dipped the head in a bucket- clearly not of water as that would have flash-boiled just for being in the room. She heard a strange clinking sound in the metal, though she was unsure if that was a good or bad sound to happen in a quenching.

The man stepped out of the forge. “Chikere, good to see you return.”

She nodded. “I have brought materials.” She leaned to the side to look at what he was working on, “What is that?”

He raised an eyebrow, “I know you’ve seen an axe before.” He folded his arms, “What, did you think I only made swords?”

“... do you not?”

“A good smith has to make everything to understand them. Just because I prefer to use a sword doesn’t mean I can’t make other things. Just like you understand how to work with other weapons even if you don’t use them in battle.”

Chikere nodded, pulling out several swords- and jars of blood. “I have brought materials.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. Many people would have hesitated.”

“Why?” Chikere asked. “Is there something wrong with this?”

“I wouldn’t say so. They were going to die anyway. It’s not like I’m refining their souls or anything.”

“These go together,” Chikere gestured to two swords and one jar. “And this with the other.”

“Yeah, I can tell,” he nodded. “Quite fresh. You’ve got good storage.”

“A formation grandmaster assisted me,” Chikere nodded. “You can make good swords.”

“You bet,” Sadiq said. “I will need some of your own blood though.” A blade was halfway to Chikere’s wrist before Sadiq managed to hold up his hand to stop her. “Hold on now. I need something to store it in. And just a few drops, mind you. I can remember your essence, but the sword will need some help.”

Chikere nodded. “Okay.” A minute later and a small prick on her finger and they had collected what they needed. “How good will they be?”

“Hard to say,” Sadiq admitted. “Everything I make is good, of course, but I can’t guarantee any of these will top that tournament prize you hold. But I can guarantee they’ll be in the top ten you’ve ever had.”

Chikere grinned. “Good. I will bring you more… at some point in the future.”

“I look forward to it.”

-----

After dealing with the Harmonious Citadel’s first attempt at a border planet, returning to the Trigold Cluster’s operations was difficult. After all, each planet could basically match the forces the Harmonious Citadel had- some were more or less prepared for various reasons, and some like Tatera had multiple outposts of similar strength.

Without the direct backing of the Dark Ring, there were simply too few people to succeed in direct attacks. The excursions across the border to the lower realms were also more defended, so they couldn’t do much there. The best they could do there was continue to harass transport ships- but even that would become risky if they ever predicted when an attack might come and set up an ambush.

The diviner Namrata was not much help in that regard- to predict the future with any accuracy she had to be involved, at least to some extent. As she was clearly not enthusiastic about the idea of going into a war zone, and forcing her would be the most likely way to get her to work against them again, they didn’t rely on her for that. Her best contribution so far had been to push them towards larger forces going to Vari’s location. Other than that, simply keeping her from helping the Trigold Cluster was good enough. They could kill her to remove a potential danger- probably- but for someone with much potential utility who just wanted to continue living it seemed like a waste.

Targets shifted away from Tatera- for the moment- so that the Trigold Cluster couldn’t focus on just one place. It was simple to predict the arrival locations of the supply ships- within a reasonable tolerance- and knowing exactly where they had to end up took no effort once they calculated the orbital periods for each planet in question. The Trigold Cluster couldn’t change a planet’s orbit… or if they could, it would be a massive endeavor just to make sure a few transport ships weren’t ambushed en route.

The ultimate solution was that they had a fleet of military ships waiting for each cargo vessel at the border of the system or wherever they would exit superlight speeds. That made it nearly impossible to cause more damage, but it also meant that a single fleet was tying up a handful of fleets between the border planets. And they didn’t have to be in the area to force the enemy to respond that way.

-----

The Stellar Wave crept its way into a system- they had to monitor whether or not people were keeping up their vigilance, after all. If they got careless, they’d lose another ship- and though the supplies were of little value, replacing the ships that were supposed to last at least hundreds of trips would add up.

Velvet greatly enjoyed the customizations to her ship, and it felt almost like a natural part of her, the formations following her lead instead of her having to control them. The difference there was how she did not have to make them do anything. That let her fully focus on her task. At the moment, that task was slipping past some sort of sensing formation around a system. She wasn’t certain she would be completely undetected, but she didn’t intend to stay long. This was a test, after all.

She could only barely sense the formation, a slight inconsistency in the flow of energy in the area. If she had not been looking for such a thing, she might have missed it. But the fact that she could sense it at all made Velvet glad that Catarina was on their side. The Trigold Cluster might have a formation master that matched her- or was better- but would they send them out to each system along the border of the lower realms just to put in a sensing formation? That seemed unlikely.

Velvet kept the vessel concealed while redirecting it along the flow, trying to find the satellites that must have made up the formation. That was not something she could do on her own, not in a short amount of time, and not without slipping up on her stealth. Instead, she had formation masters with her, using devices Catarina made to help track things down. It wasn’t quite like the things Rutera had, that didn’t rely on the operator’s ability directly. Yet they had their own strengths- a better upper limit for those with talent. Catarina had quite a few apprentices now, and with her reputation building she would have her pick of the best. Or whoever she wanted, since ‘talent’ wasn’t everything.

Velvet kept a careful watch for approaching ships. She didn’t think they’d been tagged by the formations, but just assuming that would end them up in hot water. If an enemy ship even got within sensory range, they were speeding out of the system as quick as they were able.

It took a full day to follow the signals to find a free floating sphere in the middle of space, detectable from a distance only by how it affected the flow of energy. Each one of these was not particularly valuable or important on its own- thus, tracking them down to destroy them would be a significant risk of discovery for little gain. However, they did contain something of value. To Catarina, at least. Knowledge that she could use to potentially bypass them in the future- and not just with the Stellar Wave under Velvet’s command.

Retrieving the device was accomplished without incident. The next step of the plan involved jumping to a system of no particular significance and dropping it. It was unlikely that they could track each and every piece of the formation- they might not even know it was missing- but bringing it back to Xankeshan if it did would make it very clear who was the main perpetrators of the harassment. It was likely the Trigold Cluster at least had some suspicions- they hadn’t always killed everyone, and there had been members of the Twin Soul Sect that would eventually reincarnate- but actual proof would be worse.

There was some sort of prohibition against the large factions bringing armies into the Scarlet Midfields, but there might be some unknown limitations- or they might not care, if they were angered too much. Right now, Velvet thought they were akin to a stinging bee- annoying, slightly painful, but not worth hunting down after the damage was done. They hoped to remain in that state as long as possible. Growing into a group that could match the largest powers around them in a single century was simply asking for too much. Perhaps that could not be accomplished even in their full lifespans, as significant as they would be.