Dragon Spire was already coordinating conveys of people willing to immigrate to Delph Island. I was able to secure berths for my family with a reputable company that was scheduled to set out within the next week. It would still take the better part of a year for them to arrive, but the caravan they would be traveling with included a small army of Body Refinement Realm cultivators.

I briefly considered traveling with the caravan, before I was informed my spot in Four Element Sect would only be held for the next six weeks. Patriarch Umbra expected everyone to have checked in by that time.

My parents overheard this pronouncement and had spent a great deal of effort in lambasting me for even considering delaying my arrival. And they pointed out, rather rudely, that I was only a Body Refinement Realm cultivator, what exactly did I think I could do that those traveling with the caravan couldn't?

I reluctantly agreed and after a quick conversation with my father where I slipped him a couple of the seedpods that Storm had found in the torc for him to safeguard. I didn't think anything would happen to the torc or the world inside, but I thought it better to have a backup set of seeds in someone else's possession. And I'd already purchased a spatial pouch for my father that allowed him to transport as many of his clippings and plants from the garden as he'd thought safe to transplant.

We had managed to have a last meal together before I was forced to check-in at Dragon Spires flight grounds. Geon was surprisingly the most impacted when it was time for me to leave. The attack on our home had been hard on him. He was old enough to realize that fate could be cruel, and in this world, the strong survived.

I wouldn't be with them for at least a year, and I knew he was worried about what would have happened to the family if I had not been there that night. His imagination was feeding those fears when he thought of all those days passing where they could be harmed, and I wasn't around to help.

It left all of us in tears as I hugged and kissed everyone goodbye.

Dragon Spire had been built into the side of a mountain, so the landing and takeoff fields had been segmented into two sections. The public section, the one we used when we landed had been created by carving a landing space. The private site that the Sect used for their own animals was safely located in a cave that had an opening to the skies.

It could only be entered if you had a token that resonated, a key to a barrier that no one would notice without that token. The inside passage required a person to use an elevator. Once I passed security and verified that I was who I said I was, I was allowed to use the elevator to ascend to the Sect's private flight dock.

There were at best a few dozen beasts that had been readied to provide transportation for the thousand or so people currently heading to Mount Seia. Animals so large, or capable of carrying platforms that would hold a hundred people or more. The animal I had been assigned was a rare and beautiful beast, a Qilin.

This world took great efforts to give mythological beast's shape and form that comported with musculature that was based on realism and physics. Griffins, Qilin, and Dragons existed, but there was a science behind their existence. Evolutionary paths that were based on logic.

The Qilin was what you would expect if you mixed a horse and a dragon. The Qilin we were riding was male, the larger of the species. Head, neck, and mane followed equine aesthetics. He had four legs that might be the envy of any thoroughbred. But even in the equine section of the animal there were differences. He had teeth more in keeping with carnivore than herbivore, a pair of antlers, hocked hooves that could disembowel, and a line of bone spurs protruding the entire length of the spine.

His body tapered into a serpentine tail, but he did not sport a pair of wings. His method of flight relied on Qi. Patriarch Amaya had been able to ferry the contingent of Sect members back and forth during the tournament using her Qi to create a containment bubble that held each member safely. The Qilin was able to fly and carry people using a similar method.

You didn't so much ride on a Qilin, the bony spikes would make that impossible, you flew under a Qilin, a platform had been constructed that held passengers. The platform enfolded by the Qilin's Qi field and carried much like a basket would be if tethered to a balloon. The only person not riding this platform was the Beast tamer that had bonded with the animal and become a Qilin rider. For him, there was an area reserved, where the neck and body joined, and the stony spines had left a large enough gap for him to straddle the animal.

I had to admit to some trepidation when we first took flight. I was able to use my perception to get a feel for the limits of the Qilin's Qi field, but it was still unsettling watching the land get farther and farther away as we ascended. I had taken a spot near the edge of the platform, and as I watched the world pass by beneath me, stomach railing against that view, I had to force myself to ignore the great heights we flew.

My ability to create Qi platforms and my affinity with the air element guaranteed my safe landing if the Qilin's Qi failed, but for those cultivators that didn't have a failsafe, trusting their fate to something like this must have been as frightening as seeing the ground fly by was for me. Even knowing I could save myself if I started to fall, I refused to look down after those first few initial moments of curiosity.

Delph Island was too far to make the journey in one day, we would make scheduled stops along the way to our destination resting overnight. We had been informed that it would take three days to reach the coast. That distance translated into almost eight thousand miles. It made the size of the planet more immediate. And wasn't the end of the journey.

The real problem with logistics came when crossing the Enceladus Ocean. It was too large to allow us to reach the island without at least one night of rest, so we had to use exacting navigational standards using star position for this final leg of our trip. The Hindel had shared maps that included an archipelago that we could use as a way-station. It would be the final resting place we would need before arriving at Delph Island. It would mean we needed to fly at night to make sure we didn't miss the small island.

"Jay," Leon said getting my attention reminding me that he and Jinli had been assigned to the same transportation party. "I know this is too little too late, and that it doesn't mean anything now. But I want to apologize and thank you for not killing us when we attacked you that day in the forest."

He was right, his apology would have been more sincere if he had offered it soon after the incident, or even before we had left Flowing Water behind us. But it would do no good to hold a grudge. I wouldn't forget or forgive, but I had no plans to make things difficult for him or Jinli.

"Pretty words," I finally replied, "I even believe you mean them. But we both know you waited until you were out from under the shadow of Braun and his father. Your attack on me was designed to destroy my cultivation, or at the very least remove my ability to compete in the tournament.

"And when my family was attacked, I didn't hear your voice raised in protest or anger even knowing that you were safe from Braun's retribution. You are already a Four Winds Sect member, and you still failed to support me.

"We both know why.

"I will accept your apology in the same manner you intended it, as a concession, a new beginning. You don't really mean those words, and I understand that. You hope to leave our previous acrimony in the past, and I don't see any reason to make things harder for you than they need to be."

"We were afraid," Jinli offered, "as bad as you had it, there were times when the people that cozied up to Braun had it worse."

"And yet they stayed?" I pointed out.

"Braun and his faction were not the only organization that held power. His was a small number of the entire Sect membership, and all those other people managed to survive, even thrive.

"We both know the truth, you stayed for the benefits, to not rock the boat. It was easier to go along than to stand up for what was right.

"I understand that," I insisted.

"Thank you," Leon responded.

"We will never be friends," I continued, "it is too late for that. But I am willing to remain indifferent to your goals. I will do nothing to interfere with your path forward, I expect the same neutrality from both of you.

"Because if you ambush and attack me again if you attempt to sabotage me, or interfere in my cultivation path, I will not be as forgiving as I was in Flowing Water. I will challenge and repay any perfidy you offer with my Tessen."

We were not the only people that had been assigned to the Qilin, and so our conversation had not been private. I might have used my affinity with air to create a sound barrier, but there was no point. I was not the one that had attacked a fellow Sect member; I had nothing to be embarrassed about.

If their apology had been offered to stave off rumors spreading about their actions, they would be disappointed. Our conversation would spread, I thought and was proven right when almost from the moment we rested for the night the whispering began. I wouldn't have to say or do anything to influence what other people thought of Leon and Jinli.

Their words spoke for themselves.