Ciel broke three things before breakfast.
The first was a wooden spoon.
That one was not entirely her fault.
Nora had handed it to her while she was distracted, Ciel had gripped it a little too hard, Qi had flowed instinctively into her fingers, and the handle had snapped neatly in half.
The second was a drawer.
That one was mostly her fault.
The third—
Nora stared at the small brass key bent between Ciel's fingers.
"How?"
Ciel stared too.
"I was turning it."
"With what? A smithing hammer?"
"I barely used any strength."
Nora held out her hand.
Ciel carefully deposited the ruined key into it.
Nora examined the bend.
Then she looked around Ciel's body.
A single faint layer of condensed Qi rested close against her skin.
"First Layer for less than a day."
She sighed.
"And already a menace to furniture."
"I'm getting better."
"You said that before the key."
"The key was weak."
"The key has survived eleven years."
Ciel folded her arms.
Nora pointed at them.
"Don't tense."
Ciel immediately relaxed.
Qi had already begun moving into her shoulders.
She groaned.
"This is annoying."
Nora smiled.
"Yesterday you wanted nothing more than to become a cultivator."
"I still do."
"Then enjoy cultivation."
"This part?"
"Especially this part."
Ciel was beginning to suspect everyone around her had been waiting years for someone new enough to torment.
Mara entered from the rear room carrying a cup of tea.
She looked at the broken spoon.
The damaged drawer.
The key.
Then at Ciel.
"Productive morning."
"It wasn't intentional."
"Intent is rarely accepted as payment."
Ciel narrowed her eyes.
"You and Nora rehearse these answers."
"No."
Nora replied immediately.
Mara nodded.
"We simply have experience dealing with fools."
Ciel opened her mouth.
Then decided silence was safer.
Mara sipped her tea.
Nora returned to the ledger.
For a few moments the shop settled into its normal morning rhythm.
Sunlight came through the front windows.
Outside, the commercial road had already become noisy.
A wagon full of barrels rolled toward the port.
Two men shouted at one another over the right to occupy the same unloading space.
Somewhere farther down the street, a bell rang three times.
Then Elena appeared in the doorway.
She was carrying two paper packets.
"Ciel."
Ciel brightened.
"You're early."
"I brought breakfast."
Nora looked up.
"We have breakfast."
Elena raised one packet.
"Fried honey dough."
Nora closed the ledger.
"We had breakfast."
Ciel smiled.
Elena entered.
Then stopped in front of Ciel.
Her eyes moved to the faint Qi layer.
She bowed dramatically.
"This lowly Second Layer cultivator greets Senior Ciel."
"You're stronger than me."
"Not spiritually."
"Yes, spiritually."
"Please do not crush me with your profound First Layer pressure."
Ciel reached for one of the packets.
Elena moved it away.
"Careful."
Ciel glared.
"Give me that."
"I saw what you did to the restaurant teapot yesterday."
"Nothing happened to the teapot."
"The handle made a sound."
"It survived."
"Barely."
Mara watched the exchange.
"You're Elena."
Elena straightened immediately.
"Senior Voss."
Ciel noticed the difference.
Elena joked constantly about Mara when Mara was not present.
When Mara was standing in front of her, she remembered very quickly that Sixth Layer was Sixth Layer.
Mara seemed amused.
"You invited my disciple somewhere."
Elena blinked.
Ciel looked at her master.
"How do you know?"
"Nora told me."
Ciel turned.
Nora ate a piece of honey dough.
"Traitor."
"I was asked whether you'd be attending cultivation tonight."
Mara looked toward Elena.
"Seven Reeds?"
Elena nodded.
"Senior Corvin Vale is speaking."
"I know who Corvin is."
"You do?"
Ciel asked.
Mara gave her a dry look.
"I have lived in this city longer than you've been alive."
"That doesn't answer—"
"He used to bring me objects."
That got Ciel's attention.
"What kind?"
"Bad ones, mostly."
Elena covered a smile.
Mara continued.
"He had a habit of assuming everything old was valuable."
"Didn't you say old things can absorb Qi?"
"Yes."
"Then—"
"Old manure is also old."
Ciel stopped.
Nora laughed into her tea.
Mara took another sip.
"Corvin eventually learned."
"Is he strong?"
"Stronger than when he left."
Elena leaned forward.
"People say he reached Foundation Establishment."
Mara shrugged.
"Then someone should congratulate him."
Ciel stared.
"You're not impressed?"
"Of course I am."
Mara sounded entirely unimpressed.
"But if I fainted every time someone reached Foundation Establishment, I'd never get any work done."
Elena looked toward Ciel.
"Can she come?"
Mara's eyes shifted to her disciple.
Ciel expected questions.
Why?
What would she learn?
Who would be there?
Instead Mara asked:
"What time?"
"Before sunset."
"Back before the second night bell."
Elena nodded quickly.
Ciel blinked.
"That's it?"
Mara raised an eyebrow.
"Did you want me to forbid you?"
"No."
"Then why are you complaining?"
"I'm not."
"Good."
Mara turned away.
Then paused.
"Listen more than you speak."
Ciel nodded.
"Don't buy anything expensive."
Another nod.
"Don't drink anything Elena gives you unless you watched it being poured."
Elena looked offended.
"What did I do?"
"Nothing yet."
Mara walked toward the back room.
"And if anyone offers you a secret cultivation manual for less than one spirit stone, it's either stolen, useless, incomplete, fake, or all four."
Ciel called after her.
"What if it's genuinely valuable?"
Mara stopped without turning.
"Then the seller is more dangerous than the manual."
She disappeared through the curtain.
Elena looked at Ciel.
"I like her."
"You like her because you don't live with her."
Nora took another piece of honey dough.
"Correct."
They left Voss Appraisals in the late afternoon.
Ciel had traveled along part of the commercial road before, but never leisurely.
Until now, most of her journeys through Blue Port had served a purpose.
Reach the academy.
Find Franco Taylor.
Escape.
Return to the shop.
Take the carriage to Mara's residence.
Today she could look.
The broad road sloped gradually toward the sea.
The closer they came to the harbor, the larger the businesses became.
Small family storefronts gave way to two- and three-story merchant houses.
Warehouses appeared behind iron gates.
Cultivators moved goods that would have required teams of mortal laborers.
A First Layer man carried two large crates balanced across his shoulders.
Farther ahead, four workers in matching gray robes guided a wagon carrying something beneath heavy chains.
Ciel could feel Qi from beneath the covering even from across the street.
"What is that?"
Elena glanced over.
"Probably beast material."
"What kind?"
"If they chained the wagon instead of the cargo, something heavy."
Ciel looked closer.
A symbol had been painted on the side.
Three black waves beneath a silver hook.
"What force is that?"
"Tidehook Lodge."
"Big?"
"No."
Elena thought.
"Maybe sixty cultivators."
"Mostly hunters."
"They go out to sea."
"Whales?"
"Magical beasts."
Ciel looked at the wagon again.
"And they sell to Myriad Scales?"
"Usually."
"Why not refine the materials themselves?"
"Because they're hunters."
Elena shrugged.
"Myriad Scales has workshops, refiners, buyers, storage formations, contracts..."
She pointed at the chained wagon.
"Tidehook knows how to kill whatever is under that."
"Myriad Scales knows how to turn it into ten different products."
That made sense.
They continued.
On the next corner stood a pill store painted pale green.
Several cultivators waited outside.
The sign read:
VERDANT SPRING MEDICINES
A smaller emblem beneath it depicted a flowering branch.
"Flower Branch Valley?"
Ciel asked.
Elena looked surprised.
"You learn quickly."
"That's their symbol?"
"One of them."
"Is that their store?"
"Not directly."
"Verdant Spring Family runs it."
"Flower Branch supplies a lot of their medicine."
"They're subordinate?"
Elena made a face.
"Depends who you're talking to."
"What does that mean?"
"It means if you ask Flower Branch, yes."
"If you ask Verdant Spring, they're trusted partners."
Ciel laughed.
"Politics?"
"Commerce."
"Same thing, eventually."
They passed another storefront.
Then another.
Ciel began noticing what Elena meant.
Symbols appeared beneath symbols.
Names beneath names.
Small organizations displaying seals from larger ones.
Affiliations.
Protection.
Suppliers.
Relationships.
The city was full of invisible threads.
Ciel had simply never known how to see them.
Perhaps one day she literally would.
For now, Elena was useful enough.
The smell of salt became stronger.
Then Ciel heard it.
Not the distant sound she sometimes caught from Mara's street.
The sea.
Waves.
Wood striking wood.
Ropes tightening.
Men shouting.
Gulls.
They crossed an intersection.
The buildings opened.
And Blue Port's harbor appeared.
Ciel stopped walking.
Elena took three more steps before noticing.
"What?"
Ciel did not answer.
The harbor was enormous.
Far larger than she had imagined from the city's name.
Dozens of ships filled the water.
Some were ordinary merchant vessels.
Others were not.
One had a hull reinforced with plates that shimmered faintly with spiritual light.
Another carried a mast made from something pale and bone-like.
A narrow vessel moved without visible sails, several formations glowing along its sides.
Beyond them were fishing boats, patrol ships, cargo barges, and vessels Ciel could not identify.
Wooden piers stretched into the water like fingers.
Warehouses crowded the shore.
Cultivators leapt between decks carrying crates.
A massive crane turned slowly above one dock, its mechanism driven by a combination of ropes, pulleys and glowing formation plates.
Far to the right, the coastline curved toward a fortified district.
Walls.
Towers.
Barracks.
The Military District.
And to the left—
distance and afternoon haze concealed most of it, but Ciel could see roofs rising above trees.
Larger estates.
More space between buildings.
Nearer the water than anything else.
"The Noble District?"
She asked.
Elena followed her gaze.
"Part of it."
"And the City Lord?"
"Farther along the coast."
"His estate reaches the beach."
Of course it did.
Water cultivation.
Ciel remembered Mara explaining the City Lord's lineage.
Standing here, the geography suddenly made sense.
Blue Port had not grown randomly.
Everything bent toward the sea.
Trade.
Military defense.
Cultivation.
Power.
Elena nudged her.
"First time seeing the harbor?"
Ciel nodded.
Elena smiled.
"Wait until a sea beast attacks."
Ciel looked at her.
"What?"
"Not a big one."
Elena kept walking.
"They usually stop those before the inner harbor."
"Usually?"
"Ciel, if you panic every time I say something like that, this friendship is going to be exhausting."
Ciel hurried after her.
Seven Reeds Teahouse overlooked one of the smaller harbor squares.
Its second floor had wide windows facing the water and a balcony wrapped around the building.
Seven long reeds had been painted across the sign.
Today, an additional banner hung beneath them.
WELCOME HOME, SENIOR CORVIN VALE
A second banner was considerably more commercial.
CLOUDSTEP MISTLEAF — LIMITED IMPORT
COMPLIMENTARY TASTING DURING TODAY'S GATHERING
Elena pointed.
"See?"
Ciel read it.
"Free."
"Exactly."
"Master said not to buy anything expensive."
"Then don't."
"Are you buying any?"
"No."
"Why?"
Elena looked at her.
"Because it's expensive."
Reasonable.
The first floor was already crowded.
Cultivators occupied almost every table.
Most looked young.
Some did not.
Ciel counted layers out of habit.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
She saw one man with seven.
Another woman with five.
Several people revealed nothing obvious at all.
Mara's warning echoed in her mind.
Information. Not truth.
She stopped counting.
"Good."
Elena said.
Ciel looked at her.
"What?"
"You stopped staring."
"I wasn't staring."
"You were counting."
Ciel sighed.
"Everyone knows?"
"Everyone who was once First Layer."
They climbed the stairs.
A young server handed each of them a tiny porcelain cup.
The liquid inside was nearly transparent with a faint green tint.
Ciel smelled it.
Fresh grass.
Rain.
Something sweet she could not identify.
Elena had already drunk hers.
Ciel stared.
"What?"
"You didn't even check it."
"It's tea."
"Mara told me—"
"Senior Voss thinks everyone wants to poison everyone."
Ciel looked down at the tea.
After the bandit camp and the red-light district, Mara's paranoia did not seem particularly excessive.
Elena noticed.
Her joking expression softened.
She picked up a fresh tasting cup from a tray as the server passed.
Then drank that one too.
"Same batch."
Ciel looked at her.
"You wanted another cup."
"Both things can be true."
Ciel smiled.
Then drank.
Warmth touched her tongue.
The flavor was delicate.
Almost disappointingly so.
Then she swallowed.
Something cool spread through her chest.
Her tiny reservoir of Qi reacted.
Not strongly.
But noticeably.
The scattered restless sensation inside her seemed to settle.
Ciel's eyes widened.
Elena grinned.
"There it is."
"What did it do?"
"Very little."
"It felt like—"
"Your Qi calmed down."
Ciel concentrated.
It had.
Not more Qi.
Not stronger.
Just slightly easier to feel.
"How much?"
Ciel asked immediately.
Elena pointed toward a board.
Ciel read.
One packet — six gold.
She nearly choked on the aftertaste.
"Six gold?"
"Cloudstep Province."
"It's tea."
"Spirit tea."
"It's still tea."
"Welcome to cultivation."
Ciel looked at the empty cup.
Six gold.
She understood now why the tasting was free.
She also understood why the room was full.
People who would never casually spend six gold on leaves could taste them, talk about them, and perhaps decide that six gold was suddenly reasonable.
Commerce.
Gathering.
Cultivation.
All at once.
Mara would approve.
Then complain about the markup.
Elena found two empty seats near the rear.
Three people already occupied the table.
A young man wearing dark blue scholar robes.
A woman in green with a medicine box attached to her belt.
And a broad-shouldered youth with sun-darkened skin who smelled faintly of fish.
Elena knew the last one.
"Owen."
He looked up.
"Still alive."
"Disappointed?"
"Lost money."
Elena pulled out a chair.
"You bet against me?"
"Only a little."
The young woman in green sighed.
"You two do this every time."
Elena pointed toward Ciel.
"Ciel Yi."
"New disciple of Senior Voss."
Three sets of eyes moved toward her.
Ciel felt suddenly self-conscious about the single Qi layer surrounding her.
Elena pointed around the table.
"Owen Pike."
The broad youth raised two fingers.
"Tidehook Lodge."
Ciel looked toward the harbor.
"The chained wagon?"
Owen grinned.
"You saw that?"
"What was under it?"
"Razorback Shell Turtle."
"Dead?"
"Mostly."
Ciel decided not to ask.
Elena continued.
"Selene Hart."
The green-robed woman smiled.
"Verdant Spring."
"The pill shop?"
Selene nodded.
"My family manages two branches."
"And him—"
The scholar looked up from his notes.
"Daren Holt."
He spoke before Elena could.
"Living Books Academy."
Ciel's smile paused.
Only briefly.
But Daren noticed.
"Problem?"
"No."
Ciel sat.
"I tried to enter."
Elena looked at her.
"You did?"
Ciel nodded.
"Before Mara."
"What happened?"
"Lost my registration tablet during the caravan attack."
Daren's expression changed.
"Ah."
He did not ask for details.
Ciel appreciated that.
"The academy office is painfully literal."
He said instead.
"They probably told you to visit the Civil Registry."
"Western Guard or Civil Registry."
"That sounds like them."
He adjusted his papers.
"If you ever want to apply again, I can tell you which office actually processes replacement records instead of sending you in circles."
Ciel looked at him.
"Really?"
"Of course."
A tiny door that had slammed shut days earlier seemed to open a crack.
Not enough to walk through.
Perhaps she did not even want to anymore.
But knowing it was not permanently locked felt unexpectedly good.
"Thank you."
Daren nodded.
Elena looked satisfied.
This, Ciel realized, was exactly what Elena had meant.
People.
Information.
Connections.
They had been sitting together for less than a minute.
Already something had changed.
The room gradually filled.
Ciel listened.
Every table seemed to contain a different world.
Two hunters argued about whether a certain coastal beast migrated early this year.
A pair of young women compared pill prices.
Someone complained about a sect increasing the merit cost of a movement technique.
A merchant disciple bragged that Red Lotus Pavilion had brought something extraordinary into the city, then refused to explain what.
Near the balcony, three cultivators debated the correct way to store Water-aspected herbs after harvest.
Ciel tried to listen to everything.
It was impossible.
She loved it.
A bell rang.
Conversation quieted.
The owner of Seven Reeds stepped onto a small platform at the front.
He was a round man with an enthusiastic smile.
"Friends, fellow cultivators, honored guests!"
Elena whispered:
"He's going to advertise the tea."
"How do you know?"
"He always advertises the tea."
"Before we welcome Senior Corvin Vale home after nine years beyond Blue Port—"
Elena gave Ciel a meaningful look.
"—allow me to thank Cloudstep Trading House for providing today's Mistleaf Tea."
Several people applauded.
"Packets remain available downstairs in extremely limited quantity."
Someone shouted:
"At extremely unlimited prices!"
The room laughed.
The owner smiled professionally.
"Quality has never feared price."
Owen muttered:
"Price has never feared me either."
Then the room changed.
Not suddenly.
Quietly.
A man had entered from the balcony.
Ciel had not seen him arrive.
He looked somewhere in his forties.
Perhaps older.
Sun-darkened skin.
Travel-worn gray robes beneath a new blue outer coat.
A narrow scar crossed his chin.
A plain sword hung behind his back.
No visible Qi layers surrounded him.
Ciel stared.
She felt—
something.
Pressure?
No.
Not Mara.
Not the drunkard.
Much weaker than the impossible sensation surrounding that mysterious man.
But different from the Qi Condensation cultivators filling the room.
More complete.
Contained.
Elena leaned close.
"Foundation."
Ciel's eyes widened.
Corvin Vale stepped onto the platform.
The room stood.
Ciel followed everyone else.
"Senior Corvin."
Dozens of voices greeted him.
He waved.
"Sit."
Everyone did.
Corvin looked around.
"I was told this was a small gathering."
The teahouse owner coughed.
"It was."
Corvin stared at the packed room.
"Your definition of small improved while I was away."
Laughter.
He smiled.
Then his gaze moved slowly across the cultivators gathered before him.
"When I left Blue Port nine years ago, I was Qi Condensation Ninth Layer."
Silence.
"I believed that made me experienced."
More silence.
"It did not."
Several older cultivators laughed.
Corvin nodded.
"You may laugh."
"I would."
He leaned against the table behind him.
"I knew how to kill several local beasts."
"I knew which merchants in Blue Port cheated hunters."
"I knew which roads were safe."
"I knew the name of every important force within three days' travel."
"So naturally..."
He smiled.
"...I concluded I understood the world."
Even Ciel laughed.
Corvin's expression softened.
"Then I traveled east."
He told them about roads that did not appear on Blue Port maps.
Cities built into cliffs.
A marsh where reeds grew taller than houses and insects could pierce leather armor.
A merchant caravan that crossed two kingdoms carrying spiritual salt.
A small mountain sect whose strongest cultivator was only Foundation Establishment but whose formation had killed a Golden Core beast generations earlier.
A city where artifact refiners used sand instead of marine materials.
A village whose people cultivated poisonous insects.
Ciel forgot her tea.
The world expanded with every story.
Orione had once seemed large.
Then Blue Port had swallowed it.
Now Blue Port itself began to feel like one lamp along an endless road.
Corvin spoke about danger too.
Friends who died.
A caravan destroyed because someone ignored a weather warning.
A ruin where four people entered and only he returned.
A merchant who had spent thirty years building a fortune only to offend the wrong sect disciple.
He did not make adventure sound romantic.
That made Ciel believe him more.
Eventually Corvin said:
"The most important thing I learned outside Blue Port was not a technique."
Several people leaned forward.
"It wasn't a treasure."
"It wasn't even the method that allowed me to establish my Foundation."
That caused a murmur.
Corvin waited.
"The most important thing I learned was that information expires."
Daren's pen moved immediately.
Corvin continued.
"A road safe last year may belong to bandits today."
"A friendly sect may have changed patriarchs."
"A herb field may have been harvested."
"A beast territory may have expanded."
"A city may welcome outsiders until someone important dies."
He tapped the table.
"A map tells you where a road was."
"A traveler tells you whether it still exists."
Ciel thought immediately of Mara.
Divination.
Appraisal.
Rumors.
Nora's ledgers.
Elena.
All different kinds of information.
"Never laugh at gatherings."
Corvin continued.
"Never laugh at merchants."
"Never laugh at old hunters telling the same story for the fiftieth time."
The room laughed.
"Forty-nine versions may be useless."
"The fiftieth might tell you what kills you."
Owen raised his cup in agreement.
Questions began afterward.
Some were intelligent.
Some were not.
"Senior, what magical beast was the strongest you fought?"
"One I successfully escaped."
Laughter.
"Senior, how many spirit stones did you earn traveling?"
"Less than I spent."
Groans.
"Senior, is Eastern Cloud Kingdom really full of beautiful women?"
Corvin stared at the young man who asked.
"Nine years of travel."
"That is your question?"
The youth looked ashamed.
Corvin sighed.
"Yes."
The room erupted.
Another cultivator stood.
"Senior, would you recommend young cultivators leave Blue Port?"
Corvin's humor faded slightly.
"Why?"
The young man hesitated.
"For opportunity."
"Opportunity exists everywhere."
"That's not an answer."
"It is."
Corvin folded his arms.
"Do you have money?"
"Some."
"Contacts outside Blue Port?"
"No."
"A technique suitable for travel?"
"No."
"Experience hunting?"
"A little."
"Can you identify edible spiritual plants?"
"No."
"Can you repair your own equipment?"
"No."
"Then the first opportunity you find outside Blue Port may be dying."
The young man sat.
Corvin did not sound cruel.
"Travel when you're prepared to travel."
"Not because stories make distance sound profitable."
Ciel raised her hand before thinking.
Elena looked at her.
Corvin noticed.
"You."
Ciel stood.
Her heart began beating faster.
"I'm Ciel Yi."
"First Layer?"
"Yes."
Several people glanced toward her.
Ciel suddenly wondered whether this was a stupid question.
Too late.
"If someone is ordinary..."
A few people smiled.
Ciel continued.
"No special constitution."
"No powerful family."
"No sect."
"Is joining a large force the only realistic way to keep progressing?"
The room became quieter.
Perhaps because more people cared about that question.
Corvin studied her.
"No."
Ciel waited.
"But it is usually easier."
That answer surprised her.
He continued.
"Large forces possess something independent cultivators cannot easily reproduce."
"Generations."
"One person discovers a safe circulation route."
"Another improves it."
"Someone else learns how to cultivate a difficult herb."
"Another develops a pill."
"A hundred disciples die learning which beasts not to hunt."
"A thousand people contribute knowledge, resources, land, formations, favors and mistakes."
He spread his hands.
"Then you arrive two hundred years later and call it a sect."
Silence.
"An independent cultivator may keep everything they earn."
"But they must also discover, buy, steal or negotiate for everything they need."
Ciel thought of Mara's shelves.
Decades of notebooks.
Auction catalogs.
Failed experiments.
Eighty-eight spirit stones.
Corvin continued.
"That doesn't mean independence is wrong."
"Some people value freedom."
"Some possess rare professions."
"Some build networks instead of sects."
"Some eventually create forces of their own."
His gaze remained on Ciel.
"But don't romanticize being alone."
"A lone cultivator pays for freedom with uncertainty."
Ciel slowly sat.
Elena whispered:
"Good question."
Ciel barely heard her.
Mara did all that alone.
For the first time, Ciel understood something about her master that Mara herself would never boast about.
Qi Condensation Sixth Layer suddenly seemed different.
Not small.
Expensive.
After the formal talk ended, the gathering became louder than before.
People moved between tables.
Introductions began.
Questions continued in smaller groups.
The teahouse immediately began selling tea.
Elena watched three cultivators buy packets.
"Successful."
Ciel nodded.
"I understand why they host these."
"Of course."
"They gave away maybe thirty cups."
"And sold?"
Ciel counted.
"At least fourteen packets already."
Elena smiled.
"Senior Voss really is infecting you."
Ciel ignored that.
Selene leaned across the table.
"You're really Mara Voss's disciple?"
Ciel nodded.
"My uncle buys warming blankets from her."
Ciel brightened.
"Really?"
"His knees hate winter."
Owen laughed.
"Everyone's knees hate winter."
"You're nineteen."
"Planning ahead."
Daren closed his notebook.
"My academy instructor knows Senior Voss."
Ciel looked at him.
"Good or bad?"
Daren considered.
"He calls Divination unreliable."
Ciel frowned.
"Then why does he know her?"
"Because he consults her before inspecting old formations."
The table laughed.
Ciel smiled.
That sounded exactly right.
A shadow stopped beside them.
Ciel looked up.
Not Gavin.
One of the young men who had been standing behind him at Three Steam Kitchen.
The one who had coughed when Ciel insulted Iron Scale Hall.
He looked uncomfortable.
"Miss Yi."
Elena's amusement disappeared.
Ciel nodded.
"Hello."
He hesitated.
"My name is Percy Lane."
"You were with Gavin."
"Yes."
Owen looked interested.
Selene looked considerably less interested.
Percy continued.
"I just wanted to say..."
He glanced around.
"...Young Master Mercer isn't usually..."
Everyone waited.
Percy failed to find a convincing ending.
Elena rescued him.
"An ass?"
Percy closed his eyes.
"I didn't say that."
"You thought it loudly."
Percy looked at Ciel.
"I only mean you shouldn't assume everyone connected to Iron Scale Hall has a problem with Voss Appraisals."
That surprised her.
"I didn't."
"Good."
He seemed relieved.
"My older sister buys one of Senior Voss's meditation statues."
Ciel smiled slightly.
"Does Gavin know?"
Percy looked horrified.
Elena laughed.
"I won't tell him."
Ciel said.
Percy nodded gratefully.
Then hurried away.
Owen watched him leave.
"Interesting."
"What?"
Ciel asked.
"Nothing."
Owen picked up his cup.
"Just remember that organizations aren't people."
Daren nodded.
"And people aren't always their organizations."
Ciel thought about that.
Another lesson.
Another thread.
Elena dragged her toward the balcony before sunset.
"Come."
"Where?"
"Notice board."
Seven Reeds maintained one beside the stairs.
It was enormous.
Pieces of paper covered nearly every inch.
TWO GATHERERS NEEDED — NORTH REED MARSH
THIRD LAYER MINIMUM
SEEKING WATER-ASPECTED BEAST BLOOD
PAYMENT NEGOTIABLE
SMALL CULTIVATION EXCHANGE — SECOND STREET SHRINE
BEGINNERS WELCOME
MISSING HUNTER — LAST SEEN EASTERN COAST
That one made Ciel stop.
Elena moved past it quietly.
Other notices advertised:
sect recruitment;
artifact repairs;
rooms with Qi arrays;
bodyguards;
merchant escorts;
herbal seeds;
beast meat;
maps;
lessons.
Then Ciel saw:
OLD DOCK EXCHANGE
EVERY TENTH DAY
HUNTERS — GATHERERS — SAILORS — INDEPENDENT CULTIVATORS
MATERIALS, SALVAGE, ODDITIES, UNSORTED LOTS
Ciel read it twice.
"What's this?"
Elena leaned over.
"Oh."
"Old Dock."
"Good place?"
"Depends."
"For what?"
"Cheap materials."
"Things hunters don't know how to identify."
"Broken equipment."
"Ship salvage."
"Beast pieces nobody wants."
"Occasionally something valuable."
Ciel stared at the words:
ODDITIES. UNSORTED LOTS.
Mara's shop appeared in her mind.
Old objects.
Unknown materials.
Things other people overlooked.
"When?"
Elena checked the date.
"Three days."
Ciel tore off one of the small information slips beneath the notice.
Elena smiled.
"Senior Voss really is infecting you."
"This could be useful."
"Maybe."
"Do lots of artifact shops go?"
"Some."
"Myriad Scales buyers usually take the obvious good materials before they reach markets like that."
Ciel's enthusiasm fell slightly.
Elena continued:
"Which means the remaining things are cheap."
Ciel's enthusiasm returned.
She folded the slip carefully.
"Master will want to know."
"Probably."
Elena looked toward the harbor.
The sun was lowering over the water.
Then she suddenly pointed.
"Oh."
"What?"
A new notice was being nailed onto another board by a teahouse employee.
Several cultivators immediately gathered around it.
Elena grabbed Ciel's sleeve.
"Come."
They squeezed closer.
The notice was printed on red paper.
At the top was a lotus emblem.
Ciel recognized it.
Red Lotus Pavilion.
PRE-AUCTION PUBLIC APPRAISAL DAY
MISCELLANEOUS LOTS ACCEPTED
APPRAISERS, MERCHANTS AND CULTIVATORS WELCOME
SEVEN DAYS FROM TODAY
People began talking immediately.
"Already?"
"Probably clearing smaller inventory."
"I heard the branch manager returned."
"Think they'll show Grand Auction items?"
"Of course not."
"Any entrance fee?"
Ciel looked at Elena.
"Red Lotus?"
Elena nodded.
"Small event."
"Nothing like the four-year auction."
"But?"
"But everyone goes anyway."
Ciel looked at the notice.
An appraisal day.
Mara.
Antiques.
Unknown objects.
Information.
Another door.
Blue Port suddenly seemed full of them.
They left Seven Reeds as evening settled over the harbor.
Lanterns ignited one by one along the commercial road.
Ciel walked beside Elena through crowds heading in both directions.
She had arrived expecting one lecture.
Instead she was returning with:
Daren's offer to help with Living Books records.
Selene's connection to a pill-shop family.
Owen from Tidehook Lodge.
Percy Lane, unexpectedly.
Old Dock Exchange.
Red Lotus appraisal day.
And a head full of stories about places she had never known existed.
One afternoon.
Ciel touched the folded notices inside her sleeve.
"This happens often?"
"What?"
"All of this."
Elena looked around.
"Gatherings?"
"Opportunities."
"People talking."
"Things happening."
Elena laughed.
"Ciel."
She pointed toward the city around them.
"You're in Blue Port."
As though that explained everything.
Perhaps it did.
They passed Iron Scale Hall.
The shop was still open.
Bright spiritual lamps illuminated artifacts behind polished glass.
Ciel noticed Gavin inside speaking to an older man.
He saw her.
Their eyes met through the window.
His expression cooled.
Ciel kept walking.
Elena noticed but said nothing.
Not every thread had to be pulled immediately.
Mara was waiting at Voss Appraisals.
Nora had already gone home.
Ciel entered.
Mara looked at the time.
"You're early."
Ciel began unloading paper onto the counter.
Mara's expression changed.
"What is all that?"
"Old Dock Exchange."
Paper.
"Red Lotus public appraisal day."
Paper.
"A Foundation Establishment Senior returned after nine years."
Another paper.
"Daren Holt from Living Books says he can help me replace my records."
Mara raised a hand.
Ciel stopped.
Silence.
Mara looked at the pile.
Then at her disciple.
"You attended one gathering."
"Yes."
"And somehow came back with work for me."
Ciel smiled.
"I thought you'd be happy."
"I was happy before you arrived."
Ciel pushed the Old Dock notice toward her.
Mara glanced down.
Her eyes lingered.
Ciel saw it.
"You want to go."
"No."
"You do."
"I have attended Old Dock exchanges since before your mother knew your father."
"Then we're going."
Mara looked up.
"We?"
"I'm your disciple."
"An increasingly expensive condition."
Ciel pushed the Red Lotus notice forward next.
Mara picked it up.
Her expression became more serious.
"Public appraisal day."
"You know it?"
"Of course."
"Do they have good things?"
"They have things."
"Good things cost more."
"Things are where profit lives."
Ciel smiled.
That was almost exactly what she expected Mara to say.
Then she remembered Corvin.
"Master."
"Hm?"
"Senior Corvin said large sects are powerful because generations of people accumulate knowledge."
Mara's fingers paused over the notice.
"He isn't wrong."
"He said independent cultivators have to discover or buy everything themselves."
"Also true."
Ciel looked toward the back room.
Toward the shelves she knew were filled with Mara's notebooks.
"Then everything you learned..."
Mara understood before she finished.
Her expression became guarded.
Ciel continued anyway.
"You did most of it alone."
Mara shrugged.
"I bought many books."
"That's not the same."
"No."
"I suppose it isn't."
Ciel had expected sarcasm.
Instead Mara looked down at the Red Lotus notice.
For a moment, she seemed older.
Not weak.
Simply aware of years Ciel could not imagine.
Then Mara folded the paper.
"Which is why you will not."
Ciel blinked.
Mara placed the notice into her sleeve.
"You're already meeting people."
"Good."
"Learn from them."
"Trade with them."
"Help them when it costs little."
"Remember who helps you."
"And never assume doing everything yourself is a virtue."
Ciel thought of the gathering.
A hunter.
A pill-shop disciple.
A scholar.
A subordinate of Iron Scale Hall who secretly used Mara's products.
Dozens of strangers.
A hundred invisible relationships.
"Master."
"Yes?"
"Did you attend gatherings when you were my age?"
Mara's face hardened.
"No."
"Why?"
"I was working."
"Keeping ledgers?"
Mara stared.
Ciel smiled.
Nora had told her.
Mara sighed.
"Get in the carriage."
That night, beneath the eighty-eight stars, Ciel cultivated.
First Layer had changed the experience.
The stellar influence still pressed against her body.
Her pores still resisted much of it.
But not all.
Tiny currents entered now.
Weak.
Unsteady.
Real.
Ciel gathered them carefully.
Her Qi wanted to follow every movement.
Every twitch.
Every breath.
She worked to separate intention from muscle.
A strand.
Shoulder.
Arm.
Palm.
Finger.
Again.
Beside her, Mara cultivated in silence.
Ciel thought about Corvin's words.
A lone cultivator pays for freedom with uncertainty.
Then about Mara.
About Elena.
Nora.
Daren.
Selene.
Owen.
Even Percy.
She had once believed cultivation meant becoming strong enough that nobody could hurt her.
Perhaps that was part of it.
But today she had glimpsed something else.
Every cultivator was connected to something.
A shop.
A family.
A sect.
A teacher.
A supplier.
A customer.
A friend.
A debt.
A favor.
A story told over tea.
Ciel opened her eyes.
Above her, eighty-eight constellations covered the sky.
From the ground, they looked like separate lights.
But the cultivation array beneath her did not treat them that way.
Lines connected each point.
Patterns turned scattered stars into something larger.
Ciel looked down at the glowing formation.
Then smiled.
Perhaps people were not so different.
Mara opened one eye.
"Why did you stop?"
Ciel closed hers immediately.
"I was thinking."
"Do less of that while circulating Qi."
"Yes, Master."
Silence.
Then Ciel added:
"We're going to Old Dock in three days, right?"
Mara's sigh echoed across the tower.
Ciel smiled without opening her eyes.
Blue Port had felt impossibly large when she entered its gates.
Now, for the first time—
she wanted to see all of it.