"Our spies in Four Element Sect haven't found anything else about the girl at all?" The masked man asked.

He wasn't the only person trying to hide his identity. There were five of them in total. Their attempts at subterfuge and hidden identity only possible because of powerful concealing arrays embedded in the masks they wore and supported by the trinkets each of them possessed.

They each wore a unique mask that allowed them to create false identities. The masks confounded the senses of those who spoke with them, or about them. They allowed those hiding behind the masks to create personas that served as identifiers.

Harlequin, Skull, Butterfly, Black, and Crow. The Five.

The mask hid their faces, while the trinkets they owned warped their Qi signatures. For those that attempted to use perception to identify them, they would find themselves lost in a backlash reminiscent of a psychedelic fueled acid trip. If a cultivator persisted, attempting to force their way past those protections and failed, they would be lost. Their minds destroyed by that backlash.

"Only in what I've reported," a young woman cloaked in the garb of Four Element Sect servant replied. She was powerful enough to have gained a spot as an Inner Sect member at any mid-tier Sect, but instead, she had given up one of those positions in order to infiltrate Four Elements. One of a dozen men and women that had joined Four Element Sect as spies for different factions.

Her duties working for Contribution Hall allowed her to keep track of the Sects missions and the resources that were being successfully gathered, as well as information on where resources were being found by those completing those missions.

The assembled group had styled themselves The Five. An affectation that was based on the Emperor's own inner council members. They had summoned the young woman reporting before them and demanded answers when the Sect awarded a new Qi Gathering Realm cultivator territory. That the young woman had already interfered with and harvested supplies had only increased their fervor and demand for answers.

Their patience ended when they had been informed that six months of harvested seedpods and plant cores had been confiscated by the new Baron. Their people exiled or imprisoned. And Four Element Sect, now aware of and supplied with samples of the plant they had managed to keep hidden for half a century.

"She is a Core Disciple for Elder Shadow, the new Head of Training Hall," the servant explained. "She managed to defeat one of the young masters that had been hand-picked to gain an Inner Sect position. His family did not take his loss well, especially when that defeat had him only able to earn an Outer Sect member position.

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"Pressure was brought to bear. Oaths redeemed. And Elder Dill was forced to yield or risk breaking his cultivator's oath. He stripped her of her position at Alchemy Hall and banned her from any but the most rudimentary resources to use when creating pills.

"She is known to have bonded with a Roc, but no one is certain of the animal's tier, strengths, or affinities.

"Journeyman Armorer Yvonne has formed an attachment with her, a budding friendship. Going so far as to accompany the new Baroness on a tour of her territory and new capital city. We aren't sure how or when the two women met each other, but we have people looking into it.

"She set out for her territory almost as soon as the Clerk provided her with her territory token, so any real information we have on her is limited. She had barely arrived at the Sect before she set out. We have people set to monitor her whenever she is within Sect, but what she does in her territory or while traveling leaves a gaping blind spot in our information gathering abilities," she concluded.

"Something we need to address," Harlequin said, acknowledging the problem.

"And we will address that issue in the future, but what do we do about Jai Myche in the present?" Skull asked.

"We keep the harvested pods on site for now," Crow said, the nominal head of the Five, "We still have a few agents in place that can keep us informed on what is going on in that town."

"We are going to have to buy whoever she appoints as the new Harbor Master," Skull pointed out.

"In time, but we need to monitor what changes she makes before we worry about that," Crow agreed.

"And if she explores and finds us?" Skull asked, his words barely cloaking his anticipation at the thought of battle. He was the hardest of the Five to keep under control, his penchant for fighting kept tempered by duels and beast hunts.

"She would have to find the rift to find the underground city. Then she would need to learn the language of the Elementals that reside there. Finally, she would need to create a treaty that would allow her to walk through the passages that stretch past the main city," Butterfly reminded them.

"Our discovery of a stable rift that opened into another world, as well as a third sentient race, was chance. The discovery of a plant that purifies and creates cores just as astounding.

"I will warn my contacts with the Elementals that they may need to be on guard against other people, suggest that they may have plans to invade and destroy their city and kill their people. If they don't attack and kill her on sight, at least they will make it difficult for her to gain permission to explore that underground world."

"Be careful," Crow warned, "if you start a war between the elements and the Sect, then nothing stands in the way of exposure. It might be better to allow events to unfold as they will. If she finds the Elementals, that discovery should keep her occupied."

"And if she comes close to finding the farm?" Skull asked.

"Then we kill her and hope we do it without attracting the attention of the Sect, or starting a war that will most certainly lead to our exposure."

"We may have a more pressing problem," Harlequin interjected. "Black has already left as escort for the ship to offload the last of this season's harvest. What is he going to run into when he arrives?"

"I will send a missive ordering him and the ship to turn back," Crow promised.

"I think it might be too late for that," Butterfly lamented, speaking for the first time.