SFS - Chapter 24 (Patreon)

AN: 1/2

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The next morning, I followed behind Crane down the path back toward the village. Heizen circled in the air just above us. The paranoid bird was worried I’d get hurt again. That was, like, a one in a bajillion chance, though. “Who are we looking for, anyway?”

“A scholar named Jixie.” The skyman slowed down his pace slightly so that I could keep up with him without any issue. “We’ll check his place first. See if you can’t pick up his trail.”

”I’m not a hunting dog,” I muttered under my breath. Whatever. This was a good opportunity to stretch my legs, anyway. All that cultivation mumbo jumbo and sitting still to meditate was really cramping my style.

We walked in silence down the path for a while. Eventually, a few questions bubbled up out of me. “Could you help me with something?”

”If you want.” Crane glanced at me, though continued down the path.

”It’s about Qi cultivation. I don’t think I’m doing it right.” I was feeling confident last night, but that confidence had rapidly faded. The gains I noticed yesterday were so small I wasn't even sure if they were real or a hallucination. “How do you do it?”

Crane paused midstep, and his eyebrows knit together. His eyes narrowed on me for a moment before he looked out onto the sea of fog surrounding the Ghost Dragon Mountains. “Snow… it’s exceptionally rude to ask about someone’s cultivation technique.”

”Oh, sorry.” If he didn’t want to teach me, he could’ve just said that…

”It’s fine. I doubt anyone’s told you.” He sighed and crossed his arms. The loose sleeves of his robe bunched up tight against his armor. “It’s not like I can’t tell you. It makes you vulnerable to have your path known. Not to mention most cultivators are greedy bastards, and are secretive about that kind of thing.”

”I get it.” I felt a bit adverse speaking about the Red Tithe Technique, anyway. Maybe it was thanks to the way that I received it? Outside of Heizen, I wouldn’t want anyone else to take a look at it. It was mine.

Crane nodded a few times and resumed walking. “I’m a practitioner of the Wayward Water Technique. It’s a well known style amongst rogue warriors.”

”I thought you said—nevermind.” These humans, yip. They were just so confusing. They say one thing, and then do the entire opposite. 

“I was just letting you know.” Crane nodded to me. “Ask away.”

”How do you absorb more Qi?” Even last night, I was stuck just circulating the little bit I already had through my system on repeat. 

The man caught a drop of water on his finger, and let it trail down his arm. Just before it could fall inside of his robe, it dripped down onto the trodden path below us. “I draw it from breath and water. It’s what’s always around me.”

”Are there other ways?” The Red Tithe Technique didn’t seem like it was water based. Maybe breathing? There was something about friction breathing, but I glazed over it because it looked uncomfortable.

He shrugged. “Depends on the technique. Fire, earth, happiness, sorrow—I’ve seen it all. The elementals are usually a bit more consistent.”

“Oh.” Then what the heck did the Red Tithe Technique draw from? Was it… pain? It constantly mentioned pain being the plow. I needed to go back and recheck.

“Do you want to learn the Wayward Water Technique?” He asked. He looked a little unwilling, though that softened slightly. “You did save my life.” 

“And you saved mine. Consider us even.” Water didn’t really seem like my kind of vibe. Even now, I could feel it seeping into my fur from the constant rain. It just made me feel muggy and uncomfortable more than anything.

I needed to sit down and think about some things. If the Red Tithe Technique was truly based around pain, then maybe I should rethink learning it. Sure, it was given to me by an old master, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was worth learning. 

My paws moved a bit quicker as I realized I was falling behind. “Once you pick a technique, are you locked onto the path?”

”Not necessarily, but your mastery won’t carry over unless they’re mostly the same.” Crane shrugged. “If you walk too many paths, you’ll go nowhere.”

That was good news, if nothing else. As long as I didn’t push it overboard with being indecisive. Maybe I learn the Red Tithe Technique just for now, and then I can change to something that suits me a little better when I get the chance?

Our conversation naturally died once we rounded the side of the mountain and moved into the fringes of the village. A duo of Ophidian idled along the street ahead of us. Usually, this was where I’d Wraithwalk up and get away from the source of danger.

I paused for a moment, and my ears twitched toward the streets. There were more of them around here, anyway. “Maybe we should… go… up?“

My words died in my throat as my companion shifted. Crane seemed to have a different idea. He dropped his hand onto his sword and took a stance. The next moment, Qi flooded out along the length of his blade—

SHING!

He appeared behind the duo of blighted with his sword held high. A beat later, blood spurted out of the two and they collapsed in pools of rancid blood. He flicked his sword, discarding the drops of blood, and smoothly slid it back into its sheath.

Woah… can I one day do something like that?! So cool! My desire to start trying to figure everything out reared its head once more. His martial art put Wraithwalk to shame. While I was forced to cower and hide away from just one blighted, he could just casually execute two of them without breaking a sweat.

Crane waited for me to approach before continuing down the street away from the two butchered Ophidian. “Sorry, what was that?”

“Why couldn’t you do that earlier? I thought we were going to die on the way to the temple.” Seriously, if I knew he could do something like that, I’d have thrown him at the wolf. He was much more suited to fight it than I was.

“We almost did.” Crane’s eyes twitched, and he stared down at me like I was an idiot. “I had a shattered arm and leg, little fox. We’re lucky I could even walk back then.”

”I guess when you put it that way…” I shrugged and looked back at the two dead Ophidian. The wind howled overhead, and my ears perked up. “We should get going. I can hear more of them coming.”

The two of us continued down the street for a while. Once we left the fringes of the village behind and the press of abandoned buildings became even tighter, we got off the streets and moved up along the roofs. Even Crane had his limits. Aside from that, him continuing to kill everything in our sight would just tire him out.

I had a much easier time moving around then he did. Steam pipes, still trembling with the flow of steam, acted like bridges for me to move around the buildings easily. The human, on the other hand, weighed quite a bit more and couldn’t move along them like I could. He repeatedly had to jump between buildings, though he used his Qi to make it significantly easier for himself.

Compared to the north, there were significantly less courtyards in the south. The buildings were much tighter together, and lacked the wide spaces that the north had. The eaves overlapped much more, too, and made roof-top traversal far easier. The only downside was the near total lack of snow. It was just constant rain.

There was also significantly more pipework everywhere. They lanced around the place, entwining with walls and feeding all sorts of devices and mechanisms I couldn’t figure out. Street lamps flickered with faint illumination, and I had no doubt this entire side of the village would glow in the night.

Heizen left at some point. No idea where my little subordinate went, but he stopped circling above us. Whatever. The little crow seemed unnaturally skilled at finding me, so it’d probably be fine. If not, then we’d meet back up at the Forlorn Temple.

Crane paused on the balcony of a teahouse overlooking a street, and pulled out a tattered map. He shielded it with his robe, which somehow hadn’t been soaked through by the rainwater yet. Eye of the Recorder indicated some kind of Qi trickery. ”It should be just ahead from here.” 

“Yip?” I bounced up onto the balcony rail and leered over his shoulder at the map. 

Unlike the hand drawn ones I was given, his looked printed with much cleaner linework. The streets were actually names, and it was marked up with way more information. After a few seconds of looking, the Record flowed out and started to update my old map with his.

Just as the Record finished, he put away the map and pointed down the street. “Yeah, it’s right there.”

I followed his gaze to one of the few courtyards in this section of the village. The walls had been reinforced heavily, though, like they were the walls of a fortress. People lined the tops of the walls with those weird barrel-things and spears. Each of them was covered in familiar scale armor marked with jade patterns.

I felt my hackles rise, and instinctively took a step back. Qi flowed through my body, and twisted into the pattern of Wraithwalk. In an instant, I vanished and took on my more ethereal form. 

“Snow?” Crane paused and asked quietly. He didn’t seem nearly as worried about the guards as I did. 

“I’m here.” My voice took on a faintly washed out vibe through Wraithwalk. “I’m right behind you.”

His gaze adjusted to my general direction on the railing. After a moment, he nodded and dropped his hand onto the pommel of his sword. His fingers idly stroked the length for a moment. “Are you worried about being seen?”

”Why would I be worried, yip?” I coughed lightly and glanced back the way we came. Right, I wasn’t scared of those humans… They were scared of me! Indeed! I, being the naturally graceful and ever so kind Spirit Fox that I am, just don’t want to terrify them.

“Probably for the best.” Crane’s posture shifted subtly. “Spirit Beasts are rare enough even outside of quarantine zones.”

Were we really that rare? Granted, I’d only seen myself so far. There weren’t that many even basic beasts in the village to begin with. I hadn’t even seen a mouse or rat. So far it’d just been me, Heizen, and the blighted wolf. Shouldn’t there at least be more birds around here? Or beasts of burden?

How did I get here in the first place? I was a young snow fox—I could feel that much. I’d grown pretty steadily over the past several weeks. Even Graft had commented on that… if I was so young, then where was my family? My mother, father, siblings—I hadn’t seen hide nor tail of any other fox… nor could I remember any of them either. 

Something wasn’t adding up. I was, ahem, not great at math, but even I could tell that much. Unless… maybe they were up in the mountains desperately looking for me? My heart throbbed at that thought. My poor parents…

Assuming they were even there in the first place. How’d they manage to make a den inside of the buried shrine to begin with? I only spotted one entrance and exit back then, and it’d directly lead into that treasure hall. Not to mention the monster on prowl just outside of it.

My tail swished behind me in irritation, catching a light pattering of rain drops. I wouldn’t get answers just thinking about it. I’d have to get back up there if I really wanted to try to piece together my origins.

For now, I turned my attention back to the matter at hand. I could phase through the walls of the place anyway, so I could just meet him inside. “Will you be able to get in with them on guard?”

Crane let go of his sword, and reached for a pouch at his waist. A wooden tablet token from his fingers, marked with Jade Contractor and an impressive looking seal burned into the wood just underneath. The seal had a flow of Qi that I couldn’t quite recognize. “The Jade Quarantine Guard are the ones who hired me to find the scholar.”

Jade Quarantine Guard… I made a mental note of that name in the back of my head. They were likely the ones hiring runners back then, too. The flyer Heizen brought said something about going to a Jade Officer, didn’t it? Too bad the Record didn’t have a note keeping feature—

A silver strand of thorns flowed out of my paw cuff and formed the tome once more. It flicked to a blank page, and just sat there entirely empty. I hesitated for a moment before stretching out a claw and drawing out the symbols for the Jade Guard. Where my claw touched, the silver deformed into light scratch marks.

Woah… I’ll have to mess with this later. I closed the tome, and it flowed away once more. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted by my ever useful subordinate’s newest feature… or maybe it was an old feature that I just hadn’t tried to use quite yet? I really didn’t understand nearly enough about the Record.

Crane stuffed the token into his sleeve, and glanced back toward where my voice came from. “Just stick behind me.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Not like I wanted to go anywhere else. Being this close to the human inhabited side made me a bit uneasy. Not to mention the blighted were ever-present, too.

The skyman nodded and cuffed his hands in the sleeves of his robe. With his posture reading less as a threat, he pushed out into the street and toward the soldiers.