The battle ended with the remaining Harmonious Citadel cultivators retreating. If the Scarlet Alliance squad had been dominant in the fight they might have chased them, instead they were only the victors by a small margin. Effort immediately switched to treating the wounds of the injured- though there were also two dead.

What was Chidi supposed to feel at such a time? Sorrow for lost companions? He’d only known them for a few days, but that was certainly part of it. What about fear for his own life? He’d almost lost it. At least, this was the closest he could recall coming, even if he’d technically had worse injuries once or twice.

He could feel the body of the woman he’d been fighting, no longer moving and slowly growing cold. She was the first person he’d killed- it didn’t matter that Aconite technically performed the final blow. He felt a little bit worse about killing a human than a wild beast… but also better? Most of the creatures in The Garden didn’t have ill intent, though some were certainly unnecessarily destructive. Cultivators knew what they were doing.

Physical sensations pushed to the forefront of his mind. Slick sweat and warm blood dripping down his body. The pain of the hole in his thigh, the deep cut on his cheek, and several more across his torso he thought he’d avoided. He didn’t like the pain, but overall what he was feeling wasn’t unpleasant.

Chidi understood that if he hadn’t trained in Citadel’s Downfall he might have perished that very afternoon, and the same was true of the rest of the squad and the totality of their cultivation. Today, they had done enough- and those who died did not.

A warm nose nudged Chidi, and he lifted his arm to scratch Aconite behind the ears. “Thanks, you saved me.”

“Naturally. We are siblings of battle. We fight together. If only I had stopped that arrow…” Aconite’s nose hovered near that wound for a moment.

“I should have been ready for that, too,” Chidi shrugged as he worked on his own wounds, applying stitches, salves, and bandages. He wasn’t a great medic by any means, but he understood how to deal with his own wounds. And Aconite’s, since it was more difficult for her to do any such things without hands. Not impossible, through the use of energy, but a serious effort.

-----

Chidi wanted to be stronger. Of course, he was a cultivator and that was their natural state, but he had specific reasons now. The peak of Spirit Building simply wasn’t enough. If his opponent had focused on taking him out quickly, he would probably be gone. Instead, she thought he was hiding something- maybe some secret ability that would catch her off guard. Or perhaps she had been the sort that enjoyed the challenge of battle. That was fine, but when it was applied to life-or-death battles, the consequences were easily seen.

To reach the next step, Chidi had to pick an essence. Something that suited him. He had nebulous ideas, thoughts that were like trying to grab fog. Cold and wet, but ultimately without results.

Aconite was not much help either. “What kind of essence should I have?” Chidi asked.

“I don’t know. We don’t cultivate the same way.”

“Don’t you?” Chidi asked. “Wouldn’t your essence be… poison?”

Aconite tilted her head. “If you say so. Then, your essence would be swords.”

Chidi frowned. That didn’t seem quite right. “Maybe? I don’t think that’s quite right.”

“What essences do you know?” Aconite questioned.

“My father and mother are… protection and formations?” Chidi shook his head. “Except mother’s isn’t quite that. She said it was more like… seeking answers? Solving puzzles?”

“What else?”

“Spymaster Velvet was quite secretive about hers. Though it might just be secrets?” Chidi drummed his fingers on his leg, enjoying the feeling and sound as long as he didn’t forget about the arrow wound. “I heard that my great-great-maybe-more-greats grandpa in the lower realms chose something like… nourishment? Promoting growth?”

“Sounds like you have many options, then.”

“Too many!” Chidi shook his head. He felt his hair swish back and forth slightly out of tune with everything else. “If I just had to choose a weapon or something, it would be easy.”

“Then why not do that?”

“Because,” Chidi said, “I have learned the sword and it’s probably the best for me. But it’s not what I want. Just a tool to get it.”

“Soi what do you want?”

“Ugh, I don’t know. To be stronger. To live, in general. To keep you safe, and to hug my parents again. To prove I don’t need them watching over me.” Chidi wrapped his arm around Aconite’s fluffy neck. “So a lot of things, but nothing… so specific as to make it my thing.”

“If you can’t pick, maybe make another choice. Try to eat and grow like a beast.”

“Hah, my mother would never forgive me if I did that instead of augmenting myself with formation tattoos or something.”

“Is that an option? It sounds good. Like my father.”

“Yeah… and my mother did it to herself as well. Just seems a bit out of my skill level. The consequences of messing up…”

“Just try again.”

“It’s difficult to do that if your energy reverses flow, or drives itself perpendicularly through your meridians and tears you apart. Or anything similar.” Chidi wondered what that would feel like. Horrible, obviously. Like something he’d want to forget, probably. Though as just a memory, would any sensation be that bad?

-----

By the next patrol, the lost squad members had not been replaced yet- but they still had to keep track of their portion of the roads in the area. They were still close enough to full strength, and Captain Tiras didn’t really have much choice anyway. People couldn’t just opt out of a war at will, or because things got dangerous. Even those with connections would have to fulfill certain requirements to leave.

Not that Chidi was thinking of leaving. His resolve was not so flimsy as to crumble at the first sign of danger. Aconite and her kin also followed the same growth through adversity ideals of cultivators. Though it was unlikely that either of them would significantly affect the war from where they were, every person counted. Though they would count more if they were stronger.

After the ambush, Chidi redoubled his efforts. He had only provided warning as the attack was happening, which wasn’t good enough. Whether he was distracted or simply not good enough to sense them, he wasn’t going to let it happen again the same way. Even a single extra second would have been sufficient, and preferably he and Aconite would detect the enemy before they sensed their whole squad.

Some of that depended on practice and skill, and some of that depended on cultivation. Chidi was going to figure out what his Essence would be… soon. That was part of the reason for this whole excursion.

Not every day came with an encounter of any sort. If they truly got into battle every day, even with only a minimal pair of losses in each squad, over the course of a week half of everyone would be dead. Generally, people tried to maneuver into a situation where they had a significant advantage to minimize their losses. The ambush could have easily cost them more than two lives, but if there were going to be any casualties it was preferred to levy them on their enemies.

Chidi kept his focus at its peak, listening for sounds on the wind- or lack of sounds. When birds went quiet, it could mean just as much as hearing the sound of a weapon. He wasn’t generally going to be close enough to feel anything. He would notice energy first. Same with taste. As for smell… nothing.

All of the focus… “Ugh,” Chidi said.

“What’s wrong?” Aconite asked.

“My head hurts. No big deal.”

Aconite seemed to disagree, immediately rushing over to him and snuffling about. “Why does your head hurt?”

“Probably just focusing too hard…?” Chidi postulated with uncertainty. It hadn’t even been that long of a day yet.

Aconite took a deeper sniff. “Bewildering powder. Difficult to smell, fogs the mind.”

“What about you?” Chidi frowned.

“Reistitant, obviously. Come, we must warn the captain.”

Chidi translated for Aconite. The captain could barely understand her, and the vice-captain didn’t know wolfspeak at all. “... And it’s coming from the northeast.”

The captain closed his eyes, concentrating. “I sense it now,” he said, circulating his energy to begin purging the poison. Chidi had also begun the same process, once he knew there was poison. “Likely they are waiting in ambush.”

“We should finish purging the poison and then take them out,” Denitsa commented, hefting her hammer.

“Not this time,” Captain Tiras shook his head. “Even if we only expend a small portion of our energy purging this poison, we can’t say if there won’t be something else, or that we can deal with whatever enemies set this up. Aconite, how easily can this be scattered throughout the area?”

“Unless there is an unknown source here, bewildering powder is not so easy to replace that they can attempt something like this often. But if they have sufficient resources to do the same once more, I will sense it earlier.”

The squad ultimately continued along the road only to the next fork, which would not bring them too close to the presumed source. Instead of turning their planned direction, they cut back early. That was less likely to tip off the enemy that they were discovered than maneuvering around them in the forest, though nobody could be quite certain if they had scouts watching.

Chidi and Aconite didn’t sense any, but it was easier for a couple individuals to sense a whole squad that had little or no ability with stealth.

Chidi took one last sniff, detecting only the faintest undertones of rancidness. Though that could have been his imagination, hoping to find something he’d missed. At least he would probably recognize the effects in the future. Headaches shouldn’t happen to cultivators so easily.

-----

It was obvious that half of the people present upon the inner planet did not want to be there. Not that the others seemed particularly pleased, either. But if a bunch of Life Transformation cultivators couldn’t deal with boiling hot weather, perhaps they didn’t deserve to be in charge of anything.

At least this planet didn’t have water. Anton knew it would have been convenient if it did, but the fact that this was closer to the system’s sun and thus had to be passed frequently would have shown all of the conflict in the system in a different light had it been watery. Instead, it couldn’t- as the boiling heat was literal. A good bit over boiling, even.

Five representatives from each planet, including Aleksandra and Aurelianus from Tenoun’a. Docia was not present to represent Shrenn- her weaker cultivation would not make that favorable. Instead, she’d personally recommended Lorena, and had at least some say about the others.

So far, nobody had died or even been attacked. That was… a start. Sure, it had only been ten minutes, but Anton couldn’t have been certain that either side wouldn’t like the opportunity to take out a sizable portion of the enemy’s leadership and strength. Anton would have felt either side violating the terms set up from a very sizable distance- and he was still watching and waiting.

Both sides had at least stuck to the requirements, with their ships withdrawing from the immediate area. They were currently in orbit around the planet, quite a distance apart from each other.

“Well then, all of you already know why I’ve brought you all here,” Anton said. “I’d very much like to settle your long standing conflicts in a way that could be beneficial to all present.” Anton pointedly looked towards the blue sun, reminding them of some visible stakes he had in the results. He also didn’t want to appear biased towards either side.

Though if he was biased, it was towards Shrenn. Better he recognize that, than think himself perfectly neutral. Anton could only think of one person who could be totally neutral to all parties involved, but Everheart was not present and the results of him negotiating something wouldn’t be good for anyone. And thus, perfectly fair for both sides.

Anton hoped for something… better. He wasn’t going to force a resolution in a single session, and was willing to settle for just a ceasefire if the rounds of negotiations saw no progress. But he was also going to be paying very close attention to who involved was actually willing to work towards an end. Everyone present had agreed to it… but Anton could hardly know everyone’s inner thoughts.

All he needed was progress. One step at a time. Or at least half a step. Negotiations were much worse than pulling teeth.