On Wings of Qi: Chapters 50-Epilogue (Patreon)

Chapter 50

The first thing I did was let the pill pot cool down. I pulled all my Inferno qi out of the pot and cultivated for a bit to rebuild my reserves; what little bit they had been dented. It took almost ten minutes to cool down to room temperature, during which time I made sure not to open the pot lid to make sure the temperature inside reduced at a gradual rate, rather than rapidly cooling with an influx of room temperature air. Once I was satisfied with the temperature inside, I immediately flooded the pot with Arctic qi from the four flame jets on top as well as the flame jet set into the center of the bottom of the pot.

I’d been told that the thing I called the flame jet on the bottom was usually just used to clean the pot, but I always found it so useful that I used it like any other flame jet. It was much bigger than normal flame jets, so I actually found it more useful some of the time. Sensei agreed with me. Why waste another way to inject qi into your project? That’s why he had so many flame jets added all over his pot, it allowed for plenty of places for qi to be added to strange pills and concoctions like the one I was working on.

The effects of the Arctic qi were strange, but it actually worked out better-than-expected. The Arctic qi from the bottom pushed the hardened pill mound off the bottom of the pot and, with the help of the jets on the top, it formed the mound into an almond like shape. Actually, it was more of a canelé shape, like when I made mousse for Keiko and wanted to get fancy.

I intensified the Arctic qi pushing down from above and felt it as the shell that I’d worked so hard to harden slowly started warping until it formed an inverted dome, better known as a bowl. I changed the angle my fingers were pointed at and forced the Arctic qi jets to bounce off the walls of the pot until they reached the edges of the bowl instead of the top and marveled as the bowl started to close up.

It was then that I knew I had to make my move. I quickly opened the pot, just a crack, and popped the two remaining earth grade qi stones in. They both followed a different qi jet and ended up swirling around the pot until they broke into powders by the sheer force of bashing into each other enough times. I quickly shot a thread of wind qi up from the bottom jet and gathered up that dust before shoving it into the almost closed bowl, which was almost perfectly spherical at that point. There was a small, not even inch-wide hole at the top where I pushed the powder.

As soon as that was done, I withdrew as much qi as I could from the pot, leaving only enough to keep the nascent pill floating. I carefully slid the lid open and popped in the walnut sized sky grade universal beast core.

Man, that was a mouthful… it’s not the time for that.

Anyway, I carefully slid the beast core through the opening and then slammed the lid closed. At that point, I noticed a problem. The pill pot was cracking. I quickly figured out that my rapid heating and cooling wasn’t good for the pot. It wasn’t as resilient as Sensei’s pot and that’s what I usually worked with, so I didn’t usually worry about material strength when it came to my vessel. From the spreading of the cracks, I figured I only had two minutes at best before it ruptured completely and blasted everyone in a fifty-foot radius with a nasty wave of Arctic qi. That would probably hurt, but it wouldn’t likely kill anyone around me, except maybe the servant who was standing by the pillar waiting for our trays to be returned to her. It wasn’t her fault that she worked for a bastard like Lord Hightower. It wouldn’t be right to let her die because I didn’t notice something.

I messaged Sensei, “I’m about to do something stupid and I want you to talk me out of it if you don’t think it’ll work.”

He replied with mild concern in his voice, “What do you mean? The process is almost complete, all you have to do is…”

“I didn’t ask you what I needed to do, let me explain. I’m going to shellac the outside of this pot with earth and metal qi, to reinforce this crappy alchemical pot they gave me before it explodes. Is that stupid? Is it going to get me killed when the pot explodes? Could it hurt Keiko? I would think the reinforcement should be a good thing, but I’m not sure.”

Sensei waited a few moments before responding, “The method you’re using is different from what I would’ve done, but it’s also going to work, so I’m not going to stifle the path you’ve started yourself on. You’re embracing a whole branch of alchemy I didn’t even touch, I’m not sure anyone has, so whatever you need to do? Do it. To answer your other questions, no I don’t think reinforcing the pot is a bad idea. As long as you’re careful to keep the metal qi closer to the pot and the earth qi farther out, you should be totally fine.”

That was good enough for me. I got to work. I did my best to work the sky grade beast core into the center of the bowl, which should probably have been called an egg at that point. The problem was, it was almost exactly the same size as the hole I had left and I didn’t know if I could modify the egg without damaging it. Setting it aside for a moment, I quickly spun up a mass of metal qi in my lower core, being careful to keep it separate from my Inferno qi and then coated every part of the pot, with the notable exception of where my fingers met the flame ports on top and where the flame port on the bottom was, where I was focusing qi through the meridians in the bottom of my feet into.

Once I built the metal qi up into a three-inch-thick layer, I started over with earth qi and actually ended up coating my hands and feet entirely in earth qi until there was an eight-inch-thick layer. Once I was satisfied that the shell would be able to contain whatever blast occurred when the pills were finished, I got back to work. I have to admit, I did quickly glance up at Duke Hightower to find him sitting on the edge of his seat, obviously enraptured in what I was doing. I don’t think he noticed me noticing him, but it was nice all the same.

Chapter 51

I eventually figured out that spinning the sky grade beast core fast enough with threads of Arctic qi pushing in opposite directions actually deformed it slightly, just enough that it popped into the hole at the top of the egg-like pill form. Without missing a beat, I pushed as much Arctic qi around the egg form as I could to close it up rapidly. All of the powdered qi gathering materials and pulverized qi stones that formed the original core of the mound I’d made formed the outer shell, their roles reversed. I spun the closed egg-shaped pill body with the same threads of Arctic qi I’d used to spin the beast core until the egg formed into a nearly perfect sphere. As soon as I was sure that the sphere in the center was perfect, it was time to change it up again.

I let the pot normalize its temperature to the outside again. I knew I didn’t have much time, so I kept a thread of wind qi in to keep the sphere from settling down at the bottom and freezing to it, but I did my best to not accelerate the pot’s warming process. It was agony to wait, but somehow, I knew it needed to be done.

Just before the pill was at what I was thinking of as the right temperature, Sensei spoke to me again, “You have twelve minutes left before your two hours are up. I’m not rushing you; I’m just letting you know.”

I grunted back the same way, but I still didn’t hurry the process. A minute later and the pot was totally normalized. I took a deep breath and relaxed, glad that I’d used the past ten minutes to meditate again and gather up more qi, I was about to try something kind of stupid. I went back to the beginning, pushing as much Inferno qi into the pot as I thought it, and the shell I had created, could handle. I pushed the temperature up all the way to where I would start the flame wheel technique, but I didn’t start that process. Not only did I not have enough time, but I also wanted to keep a few tricks hidden. I kept increasing the Inferno qi within the pot until it was fit to burst. The nascent pill sphere was spinning rapidly in the center of the pot, spun to a violent speed by the threads of Inferno qi I was using to increase the heat and pressure inside the pot. The pill was moving so fast the pill pot was actually rocking back and forth a bit, though I was holding it steady.

I sent in one last burst of Inferno qi and then retracted my fingers and feet from the flame jets on the pot and quickly filled in the holes until I was holding a sphere of earth qi. That sphere of earth qi was wrapped around a sphere of metal qi, which was wrapped around the pill pot, which was wrapped around a mass of Inferno qi that was spinning an alchemical pill at an insane rate of speed.

Yeah, I told you it was kind of crazy. I’m not even sure where I came up with that idea, to be totally honest.

Once I had the pill pot, turned earth qi sphere, well in hand, I looked up at the Duke and smiled, “In seven minutes, the pills will be perfect.”

Now, I wasn’t stupid enough to walk away from the sphere that contained those pills, but I did stretch my legs as I held it in place, I’d been in a modified lotus pose for the better part of an hour and ten minutes and I didn’t find that a comfortable way to sit for long periods. Most cultivators do, but I think it’s because I have long legs. Long legs make everything harder, except grabbing things from tall shelves.

The Duke continued to stare at me in shock for a few seconds, but then his gaze went from one of shock to a sneer. He whispered something to Not-Edgar and then Not-Edgar walked over to stand next to my worktable. I paid him no mind, checking on Keiko instead.

She was just sitting, gathering up qi with her formation flags all laid out in an organized fashion on her worktable. As if sensing me looking at her, she looked over and winked at me.

She messaged me, “I’ve been done for forty-five minutes. They messed with a few of the lines in the formations and I had to rebuild them, but it wasn’t anything difficult. How are you doing?”

I shrugged mentally, “No clue, we’ll find out in about three minutes.”

She burst out laughing, which drew everyone’s attention away from me, everyone but Not-Edgar. His eyes were locked on me and it was a bit unnerving, to say the least. No one stared at anybody for that long, most people would look away or check out their surroundings, he didn’t do any of that. His focus was singular. Besides occasionally blinking, I was his sole focus.

Between my hands, the sphere shook violently, but I managed to hold it together with a bit of qi reinforcement from my heart core. After that I knew that the pills were done. I didn’t know how I knew it, but I just knew it.

Peeling the shell on that pot was like opening a festival present, I hadn’t had a lot of those growing up, but my favorites were the ones that were like puzzles. This wasn’t as good as that… okay, yes it was. As I peeled away the shell of earth qi, I saw that the earth qi only three inches away from the outer edge was pitted with metal shards. I was glad that I’d made that outer shell eight inches thick instead of three like the metal, otherwise the metal qi would’ve shot out into the room. As I got closer and closer to the center of the pot, more and more destruction was evident. There wasn’t even a pot inside at the end, there was simply a pitted dome of metal qi that contained a dozen perfect amethyst-colored pills. They gleamed like the stars in the night sky, or like the lights in the sky that Melody and Roderigo had pointed out on our way to Trader’s Hollow.

Before I could scoop a hand in and pull out one of the pills to inspect it, Not-Edgar’s hand shot in and scooped up all but one of the pills. He locked eyes with me and, for half a second, I saw a flicker of the Edgar that Keiko and I had grown to like. But, as he looked away, I knew it was gone.

Chapter 52

I shouted at him, “Hey, I wanted to look at those!” Even as I did that, I was sliding off the table and I plucked the final pill and deposited into my spatial storage ring with a hand gesture I hid behind the remaining shell of what used to be a pill pot.

Duke Hightower laughed out loud as Not-Edgar handed him the pills I’d just produced, “You think that I’d let you touch them after they were done? What if you had some way to taint them and cause whoever ate them to be harmed? You never know with alchemists, they poison just as well as they heal, but I’m willing to bet you know that.” He grinned wide as he rubbed his mustache.

To be fair, he was totally right. I had poisons that could even kill him if I got lucky, and those were just the ones I had modified and ready on my person. Give me two weeks and a decent alchemical supply and I’d be able to make a poison that would be able to kill just about anybody. It would be very short-lived, but would need to be used in ten or fifteen minutes. The point is, alchemists were dangerous and I knew it.

I shrugged, “Alright, that’s fair. Those are your Expert crafted Purple Frost Pills.”

Sensei quickly messaged me, “Those pills are exceptional, far better than most, if not any, other Expert alchemists could’ve made. You actually made Amethyst Frost pills, jumping a half grade. Not quite Master grade, but your yield was significantly higher than mine would’ve been at your rank. Only after reaching Grand Master would most alchemists have gotten twelve pills out of that. You should’ve gotten something like six, not twelve, with those ingredients. In an attempt to prove someone wrong, you may have overdone it a bit.” As I tried to rebut, he continued, “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, I’m just saying that’s what happened. Now, you get to live with the consequences.”

I didn’t like it, but he was right. From the look on the Duke’s face, he was about to offer me a deal I was really not looking forward to.

He took one of the pills between his thumb and forefinger and, without hesitation, crushed it. The wave of ice qi that burst out of the pill was tremendous. Having seen what he was about to do, Keiko had jumped up and stood between where the servant woman was standing and the Duke, but it wasn’t enough. Keiko was simply too small and, without the ability to produce attributed qi or any qi outside her body, the wave of ice qi shot past her and hit the servant head on. She stumbled back and gasped as her entire body was coated in ice. Keiko and I watched in horror as she fell backward and her body shattered into a million pieces.

Duke Hightower didn’t even look over at where the noise came from, he simply stared at his fingers with greed. Lust for power was evident on his face.

Keiko yelled at the Duke, “What did you do!?” She waved a hand back at the shattered remains of the female servant, “You just killed one of your own people and all you do is stare in wonder? What are you going to do about her?” She waved an arm back toward the shattered remains of the servant girl.

Without missing a beat, the Duke looked over at the guard I called Jeremy and fixed his steely gaze on him, “You. Clean that up. Oh, and make sure they send in a replacement, on the double! It wouldn’t do for our guests to have to stand behind dirty work tables.”

“Jeremy” snapped to attention and saluted, slamming his fist to his breastplate, “Yes, Duke Hightower!” He quickly jogged over to where the female servant had breathed her last breaths and scooped up her remains into a spatial ring. He then moved quickly for the door she had exited, opened it, and then passed through it, closing the door behind himself.

The Duke looked at Keiko with a raised eyebrow, “Well? Are you happy now? The mess is gone. Another servant should be along soon to clean up the mess.”

I started messaging Keiko, but she beat me to it, “I’m furious, but this is an act. He has to think I’m irrational. He has to think that he holds all the cards, because he holds almost all of them and we have to keep the few we do have close to our vest. Don’t worry, I’m not going to jump up and attack him. This time… I promise.” I wasn’t sure about how she ended that, but I had to trust her.

She walked over to stand behind her worktable and started drumming her fingers upon its surface, “Let’s continue.”

The killing intent radiating off of her would have made a Brain cultivator pass out, but I knew that it wasn’t close to what she could produce. She really was reining it in.

The Duke, on the other hand, broke into a wide grin, “You’re a feisty one. Feisty formation masters are great for combat applications, but rarely are they as good in a lab setting,” he reached a hand out to the other side of the room from where the first servant had come in and snapped his fingers twice. “Let’s test if that’s the case with you as well.”

A few seconds later, a mousy man, probably no more than five foot six inches tall and a hundred pounds, soaking wet, streaked out of another door. He was wearing long black robes with golden symbols all over it and I was shocked to see that they were all protective runes. That man was better protected wearing that robe than the Duke was sitting on his throne, at least assuming he had some sort of qi stone powering it, otherwise it was just fancy decoration.

The mousy man moved to stand before Keiko and I, between us and the Duke before bowing deeply and swinging his arm out behind him exaggeratedly.

“Milord, how may I be of service to you?” As soon as he finished, he burst out in a cough that almost knocked him over. As Keiko and I laughed, the Duke snapped at him.

“Harland, if you weren’t so useful, I would have fed you to the Winter Wolves years ago. Inspect Mrs. Roh’s formation flags. Tell me if they’re fully functional and then, if they are, set them up around you so we can test them for ourselves.”

The mousy man, Harland, I guess, bowed to the Duke once more, “Of course, Milord.”

When he turned around to take a look at Keiko’s formation flags, he looked over at me with fear in his eyes and I knew then that maybe we would have an ally in the Duke’s palace. If we could find a way to get Harland out of the Duke’s clutches safely, maybe there might be a way that we could get out of whatever the Duke was going to ask us more quickly. I filed that fact away for future use.

Harland took almost an hour to go through Keiko’s formation flags, testing every line, rune, and flag individually and as a group. Eventually, he turned around and nodded at the Duke before gathering up the formation flags. He walked to the left of where he’d originally been, so the Duke, Keiko, and I could all see his face when he was looking at us. He took a deep breath and then set the formation flags up around himself. With a pulse of qi, the formation flags lit up and the formation became active.

The Duke ran his hands back and forth excitedly, “Okay, here’s how this is going to work. Keiko, Steven, the three of us are all going to get to ask Harland a question. If your formation repairs work as they should, he should be unable to lie. To keep things fair, my question will be something he wouldn’t want to answer, to avoid coloring your opinion of him, but Edgar and I both know the answer, so we’ll know if he’s telling the truth, which will mean they work. Alright, let’s begin. Steven, what is your question?”

Chapter 53

I want to say I was surprised, but I wasn’t. As soon as I saw that look in Harland’s eyes, I knew that the Duke must’ve had something over on him. Now, we were about to find out what it was, so I had that going for me. I thought for a few moments about my question before speaking.

“Harland, where in the city do your closest family members live?”

I mean, I wanted to know and the Duke obviously already knew, so I went with the question. It may not have been the most tactful question, but it was something I needed to know if I was ever going to be able to work with Harland against the Duke. I know that if we weren’t being stared at by the Duke, Keiko would’ve shot me a dirty look at me, but he was, so she didn’t. It didn’t stop her from sending me a few crass comments, but I dealt with it.

Harland looked over at me and took a moment before answering, “My two little sisters live in the palace as maidservants to the Duke’s wife. My parents are dead.” That explained it, the Duke had Harland’s little sisters held hostage, in the guise of giving them a job. I didn’t like the Duke before, but after that? I liked him even less.

I looked to the Duke for a response and he simply nodded, “He isn’t lying, that’s correct.” He flicked his gaze over to Keiko, “Well, Keiko, what’s your question for Harland? Hopefully it’s more salacious than your husband’s, I could do for a laugh!” He roared with laughter at his own joke, “I’m too much!”

I groaned internally, but I think I kept it off my face.

Keiko’s question was simple, but truly intimate and I was almost shocked that she’d asked it, “Harland, what’s wrong with your cultivation?” Harland’s face went white as a sheet and I could hear the Duke laughing from up on the dais where his throne was.

Harland bundled up his hands into fists around his robe. He stood there shaking for almost a minute before a shock of energy ran through him from the formation, prompting him to reply after groaning in pain, “I was injected with a toxin two years ago that prevents my cultivation from growing. I was a newly minted Saint when it occurred and, since then, I’ve reverted to being a Brain cultivator.” The Duke guffawed at Harland’s answer and prodded Not-Edgar to join him, which he did in a very wooden fashion, barking out a few times before going silent. Harland’s head hung low and tears started to fall to the ground, which only made the Duke laugh harder.

The look of pain in Harland’s eyes was heart wrenching and I knew then that Keiko wasn’t going to let us leave without taking him and his sisters with us.

To be fair, I was totally on board for that. The problem was, that meant we couldn’t leave via our emergency escape route, i.e. the token that would take us to the Inheritance of the Lovers. We would have to leave physically and that was going to be no easy task.

Sensei spoke to Keiko and I quickly, “He likely has a very rare form of Orichalcum poisoning. For it to have reverted his cultivation a full stage in just two years, unless it was made by an Imperial alchemist, he’s likely still being poisoned. You should make it a point to get to know him. Before very long, we might be able to detect where it’s happening. By that, I mean we might be able to figure out who’s doing the poisoning and how they’re doing it.”

I was repulsed, “You think the Duke’s doing it to him, don’t you? Him or someone trying to curry favor with them.”

Keiko didn’t respond to us, she simply looked at Harland with caring eyes, “I’m sorry to hear that, Harland. My husband is a phenomenal alchemist. Maybe there’s a way that we can help you.” She kind of gave up the ship with that, but the look of relief on Harland’s face was worth it. He probably thought that his cultivation was going to continue reverting until he was no longer even a body cultivator, at which point he would die. Most people didn’t make it to Saint until they were in their second century of life, so if he reverted back to a time before he was a cultivator, his body would simply stop functioning.

The Duke’s laughter faded as he glared at Keiko and I, “My personal alchemist is taking care of Harland’s condition. His skills are obviously far greater than some upstart, seeing as he’s a Master alchemist. Harland, don’t be led astray by these two. They’d say anything to get you to help them.” I bristled at that, but managed to check my tongue.

Harland turned around in shame before looking up at Duke Hightower with his head hung low, “What’s your question, Milord?” His soul was just crushed, it was hard to listen to and I knew that the Duke’s question was going to make him feel any better.

The Duke rubbed his thick black beard thoughtfully before running his hands through his short cropped black hair. After a few minutes of muttering to himself, hemming and hawing about what would make Harland feel the worst, he looked over at Not-Edgar.

“Nephew, why don’t you ask Harland the question? I know you love to watch people squirm. Make it something truly salacious.”

Not-Edgar released a short bark of laughter, but it was nothing like the laugh we’d heard Edgar unleash on the boat. What we’d heard was a laugh fueled by a happy soul. The bark just then was just that, the bark of a dog who had been whipped by its master one too many times.

Not-Edgar looked over at Harland and mirrored his uncle’s rubbing of his beard, “Harland, how big are your gambling debts and to whom are they owed?” Harland’s face would’ve fallen even farther if it had anywhere else to go.

Harland stared hard at the floor for almost an entire minute before purple lightning sprang from the formation flags to strike him. He writhed in agony, but still didn’t answer until the Duke yelled at him.

“Answer the question! If you don’t, I’ll make sure your sisters have sparring duty for the next month. Elspeth has been in a foul mood lately… she could do with a group to vent her frustrations on.” The grin on his face was pure evil, he knew exactly what buttons to push to get Harland to comply and was willing to do so without hesitation.

Holland looked Not-Edgar straight in the eyes, “I owe 45,000 gold pieces to the Auction House. I also owe 25,000 gold pieces to the Cunning Fox Lounge. Finally, I owe the captain of your guard 42,000 gold after he paid off my last batch of gambling debts.”

The Duke stared hard at Harland as Keiko and I looked back and forth at each other. That was a lot of money. Even half of that would be enough to buy a medium sized town, the whole amount might even be enough to purchase a pair of working villages with decent mines.

The Duke glared at Harland, “You’re very lucky that you work for me, Harland. If it weren’t for my protection, your debtors definitely would’ve killed you by now to sell you for parts, in an attempt to recoup their funds.”

Harland’s head hung as low as it ever had, “I know Milord. For that, I’m eternally grateful.” The sad thing is, he did sound grateful.

Chapter 54

Debt. It was something I was intimately familiar with. My grandfather wasn’t shy about spending money to make money, buying rare woods to use for staves for wealthier clients. The thing is, he didn’t always get them done on time, seeing as he could get called away at a moment’s notice to take care of something for his master. When that happened, I would be left alone.

More than one loan shark came looking for their money while my grandfather was gone, but I usually just hid under the tatami mats of the house and let them search it for whatever they wanted. It wasn’t like we had any valuables to steal. I took the few things we did care about down with me and, even when they inevitably left in a huff, I didn’t come back up until my grandfather came home. I stayed down there for three days one time before he came home. He’d been called away to deal with a bandit problem, but the bandits had run instead of fighting like usual.

The thing is, my grandfather always made sure he could cover his debts. He bought valuable materials so he could make more money. When he was done selling his crafts, he usually had a bit left over after paying off the loan sharks. If it weren’t for him getting called away by his master, he might even have been able to become a successful craftsman in his own right. But alas, that never came to be. He died before he ever really got recognized for his work.

I worried about that sometimes, dying in obscurity, despite all of my miraculous luck the past few years. It was a sobering thought whenever it popped into my head.

The Duke showed us a toothy grin, “Harland, you can go. Take those flags with you and put them back where they belong. Send in Marrakesh. I bet she’s been chomping at the bit to get in here, what with you taking so long to do your job!” He guffawed again, even as Harland scooped up the flags and rushed out the door he’d come through without another word.

Duke Hightower looked at me with a curious eye, “Are you ready for your pills to be judged? My alchemist is from one of the most respected alchemical schools in the capital. She’ll be able to tell any of the tiny flaws you might have hid with that bit of pageantry at the end there.” He rubbed his hands together greedily, obviously looking forward to what he thought was about to happen.

He was going to be sadly mistaken if he thought that my work was going to be anything less than stellar. If Sensei couldn’t find any fault with those pills? There was no way some Master alchemist from some so-called “respected alchemical school” was going to be able to find any fault in them.

I shrugged, “I welcome any sort of peer review you’d like to do, we’ve already seen how powerful the pills I made can be. Now we just need to see how technically correct they are.”

As if summoned, the door Harland had just left through swung open quietly and a swarthy, corpulent, woman walked through it. She was barely taller than Keiko, but she probably weighed in at over three times her weight. Despite that, she walked with a purpose and her long black braids bounced across her full chest.

She glared over at me before turning and bowing deeply for Duke Hightower. She lingered quite a bit longer in her bow than would be expected, but from the look on the Duke’s face, she knew what she was doing. He was leering at her like she was a prized piece of meat about to be devoured and she savored that.

When she straightened up, she took a moment to get the rings settled in her hair before speaking, “Duke Ellington, it’s a pleasure to serve you. How might I be of service?” Her voice was sultry in an over-the-top way, but that didn’t stop the Duke from eating it up.

His eyes roamed over her full figure, “Marrakesh, my dear, I’m sorry to have disturbed your important work. I know you give your full attention to whatever you’re working on.” He winked and she giggled, setting my teeth on edge. “I’m going to need you to inspect the pills Mr. Roh created. He was asked to create Purple Frost pills, but these don’t look like any of those that I’ve ever seen.” He gestured for Not-Edgar to walk over and hand her the pills, which he did before immediately returning to his uncle’s side.

She sneered at Not-Edgar as shc snatched the pills, but he didn’t respond. She strutted over to the table I was standing behind and shooed me away, “Go away, I’m working here.”

I backed off, not wanting to seem like I was interfering with the process in any way. I didn’t want the Duke, or his lackeys, to be able to say anything bad about my pills. I knew the quality of my work and it would defend itself, if Marrakesh was honest. To be fair, I didn’t hold out much hope for that. So far, the Duke had proven to be as biased as he was cruel, not the qualities you want in the leader of a large community, like Hightower.

As Marrakesh inspected my pills, shaving bits of them off and testing them with different liquids she produced from the box she’d placed on the table, her face grew more and more pale. I watched her like a hawk, I didn’t want her to do anything to the pills that might make them less effective, or to taint them in some way and have her pin it on me. Every now and again as she was working, she looked up at me, her face a mask of incredulity, before looking back at the pills with renewed purpose. I stood there and watched her, my hands folded calmly in front of me, for the entire time she was touching my pills.

Sensei and I were chatting about what she was doing throughout the process and it was actually quite interesting. He explained that she was testing the qi density of the pills with different types of solvents that reacted with different levels of qi. My favorite part was when she pulled out a tiny purple bottle and dripped the smallest droplet she could onto the pill, only for it to glow brightly and then make a small popping noise. At that, she snorted in disbelief, which set Sensei to chuckling.

“That’s a solvent used to test high-Expert grade pills. Technically, it can even be used for low-Master pills, but if the pill’s purity is too high, it’ll react as if the pill is a higher rarity than it actually is. In this case, it’s reporting that your pill is at least Master grade, if not higher. It isn’t really her fault, the solvent she’s using was a product created by one of my so-called ‘rivals’. The thing is, because he didn’t specialize in making incredibly pure pills, but rather in mass-producing cheaper and easier to make pills, his tinctures don’t work when exposed to something of true quality. Valerian Telios, I hoped to never hear that name again, but that’s the name of the tincture she’s using, Valerian’s Expert Solvent.”

He went silent for a few minutes as Marrakesh worked feverishly to try and find a flaw with my pills. Eventually, he spoke up again, “Do me a favor, please? Ask her what the name of the Academy she studied at was, I hope I’m wrong, but I think we both have a sneaking suspicion what her answer is going to be.”

I shrugged mentally, it couldn’t hurt to ask.

I softly cleared my throat, “Marrakesh, I’m sorry to interrupt you. Would you mind telling me the name of the Academy you studied at in the capital? I’ve been looking to get some formal alchemical training and, if your alma mater is so respected, I’d like to see if I can test my mettle there.” I may have been laying it on a little thick, but her reaction was still startling.

She looked up at me with fire in her eyes, “A commoner like you would never succeed at Telios Alchemical Academy! Only those of pure noble stock and talent could ever thrive there!” She whirled around and snapped her box of materials closed before sucking it back into her spatial ring and sauntering over to Duke Hightower.

He looked at her curiously, “Well, my darling, are you going to tell me if he’s really as good as he says he is? Is he worth dealing with, or should I throw him out into the snow bank for the Winter Wolves to eat?” He growled playfully, but Marrakesh didn’t reply the same way I thought she would have before. Instead, she stiffened slightly. He obviously noticed, because he looked at her oddly, “What’s wrong? Were his pills that bad? Did he wreck them with that ball of rock he put around them? If so, I’ll let you do whatever you want to him, my treat.”

I frowned. Well, that didn’t go the way I expected.

Marrakesh turned and pointed an angry finger at me as she addressed the Duke, “This man is a fraud! There’s no way someone of such common stock was able to produce pills like this. He must’ve used some sort of trick to fake you out or something of the sort, I’m sorry to say.” She fluttered her hand under her double chin and sighed exaggeratedly, “There’s no way… no way a mongrel like him could make pills this gorgeous, this divine!” She held my pills aloft and I saw that they were still sparkling, just the same as when I’d cracked open the pot to see them for the first time.

She gestured emphatically at the pills, even as Keiko started snickering to my left, but that didn’t deter Marrakesh in the slightest. “These pills are of the highest purity, they must be Master grade, if not Grand Master! I daresay it would be a waste to give these to anyone other than your fine family, Milord. To do anything less would be disrespectful to the true Master who this hack has impersonated.” When she turned back to look at me, there was metaphorical fire in her eyes, “You are scum!”

Duke Hightower’s voice filled the room, despite him not yelling, “Are you saying… that I can’t tell when a Saint is lying? Are you telling me… that I didn’t watch him produce those pills, breaking down the ingredients I gave him, putting them into that pot and then surrounding them with the orb he created? That, mind you, the man standing to your right, didn’t pull them from the pot himself? Is that what you’re saying? I need you to be painfully clear.”

His voice was like a thousand knives slashing through the bodies of everyone in the room, we all shook with their ferocity. Despite the fact that he hadn’t yelled, his voice filled the whole room with its sheer presence. Killing intent was roaring off of him in a way that almost matched Keiko’s unchecked killing intent. Hers was artificially inflated by the oddity of having a universal beast core for a lower core.

Marrakesh looked shocked, but covered her face with a fan she produced from somewhere as she nodded slightly, “Milord, there is no other explanation. These pills… they are beyond what I can create.” Her voice quivered as she finished speaking.

The Duke clapped happily, gone was the anger at what she had previously said, “Excellent!” He calmed down for a moment, “Marrakesh, my dear one, fetch my niece, she’s right on the verge of breaking through to Sage and, if these pills are as miraculous as you say they are, her breaking through should be a perfect test.”

Marrakesh didn’t even try to argue, she simply turned and ran away, her sweat soaked braid swinging behind her, from her master in shame.

Keiko cracked her neck, “We didn’t lie to you, we told you how skilled we were. Now, are you ready to talk terms?” She set her hip in a defiant stance as she stared up at Duke Hightower with eyes full of pride.

She messaged me, “That was my attempt at playing ‘Crazy Guard’ here, you’re going to need to come in behind as ‘Rational Guard’ to clean up, got it?” I grunted mentally in assent.

She started slowly prowling behind her workbench, which had been cleaned up while Marrakesh inspected my pills. “What are your terms?” She didn’t elaborate, but everyone involved knew what she was talking about.

Behind us, “Jeremy”, who had returned with the new servant to clean off Keiko’s table, staggered back from the killing intent radiating off of Keiko. She’d let loose probably a third of what she could actually do and, if I hadn’t been nearly immune to it, it probably would’ve sent me to my knees. As it was, even the Duke flinched back, which set him frowning, which is probably why she told me I was the ‘Reasonable Guard’ in our little ploy.

Chapter 55

I walked over and patted Keiko on the back and pulled her in close to me before addressing Duke Hightower.

“Many apologies, Duke Hightower, but the past few days have been very stressful for my wife. The airship we arrived in nearly crashed and she had to save almost a hundred of the children from one of your villages from a fate worse than death. Destruction of your fine city!” I held my hand to my chest, doing my best to fake appearing shocked before continuing, “Delicate and volatile flowers, such as her, are not well suited to such rigors.”

The Duke took in everything I was saying with subtle head nods, obviously eating up everything, even if he was still a bit surprised at the fact that her killing intent had actually affected him. After I spoke a bit more about how delicate a flower Kekio was and that she knew not the rigors of travel, given her pampered mercantile upbringing, he finally nodded and held up a hand for me to stop.

Keiko messaged me, “Laying it on a bit thick, don’t you think?”

I disagreed, “I don’t think so, Duke Hightower maybe powerful, but he’s also misogynistic, playing into the fact that he thinks women are weak, he was probably eating right out of my hands.”

Before Duke Hightower could speak, the door Marrakesh had left through opened and a gorgeous raven-haired woman walked through the door. She was almost six feet tall and her figure was well toned, with more than a bit of bosom to fill out her figure. She walked with purpose; despite the extravagant yellow gown she was wearing. She didn’t walk like she was used to gowns, rather she walked like she was used to breaches with a sword at her hip. She appeared to be treating the gown she was wearing as a form of armor as she presented herself to her uncle.

Behind Keiko and I, I heard “Jeremy” sigh and the Duke’s niece looked over quickly and flashed him a wink, being careful to make sure her uncle didn’t see. “Jeremy” melted, almost falling down, before stiffening his spine and standing to attention as properly as could be.

Oh, a bit of inter-caste romance within the palace? That was something we could use later, hopefully. It was good to know that not all of the Duke’s other relatives were terrible, otherwise she wouldn’t have spared “Jeremy” a single look.

The Duke beamed and clapped as his niece curtsied before him. He held out a hand toward her as he addressed Keiko and I, “This is Edgar’s younger sister, Elaine. She’s been on the verge of breaking through to become a Sage for the better part of two years now and I’m hoping the pills you created, Steven, will help finish that out for her.” He looked back at Elaine, “Elaine, these are Steven and Keiko Roh, a particularly talented pair of Saints whom I think you’re going to become very well acquainted with.”

Elaine turned to address Keiko and I and curtsied to us, “It’s wonderful to meet you. Please call me Elaine, there’s no need for any formalities with me. I hope we can get along well.” Her voice was smooth, it reminded me of the sound of The Duskguard leaving their sheath, a solid sound of metal against leather, unlike any other. Her voice was deep for a woman’s, rich in its tone, but it didn’t make her sound any less feminine.

She turned back to the Duke, which sent her back-length raven hair fluttering out into the air behind her before settling against her back again, “Uncle, would you mind telling me what you called me for? I have sparring with Auntie in an hour and I still need to go and get ready.”

Duke Hightower just smiled and extended a palm bearing two of my Amethyst Frost Pills, “You’re going to miss that appointment. You’ll be doing something much more important. You’re going to take these two pills and break through to become a Sage. Right here, right now.

Her jaw dropped, in numb shock, even as Duke Hightower leaned forward and pressed the pair of pills into her palm before closing her hand up and patting it. “I’ve been told these are nearly Master grade, they should be quite effective. Hopefully this time it’ll be easier than the last attempt.” He sighed, his voice dropping at the end there.

I wondered why he treated Eileen so much better than he did Edgar? She didn’t appear to have been manipulated in any way. She was just a well-mannered noble girl, who liked to spar, while he essentially enslaved Edgar. It was curious, to say the least.

Eileen stuttered a bit, “B… b… b… but, I don’t have…” She hastily regrouped, “But Uncle, I don’t have any of my materials here. It would take me at least…”

Duke Hightower snapped his fingers and another servant ran in from the door Eileen had come through bearing a large box. The servant set it down with a loud clanking noise before bowing to the Duke. He quickly waved his hand to send the servant away and they scurried off, making sure not to run, but moving as fast as possible without doing so.

“I guess my chest is here now.” Her voice lowered slightly, “Uncle, are you sure you want your guests to see me doing this? I’ve been told… it can be quite revealing.” Her cheeks grew red as she quickly marshaled herself to try and calm down, but everyone in the room noticed. I saw a flicker of recognition on Not-Edgar’s face, like Edgar was trying to come into play, but it was gone a tenth of a second after flashing into being.

Seeing his sister distressed must’ve triggered something in him, because, in that fraction of a second, he took almost a full step toward her, which earned him a glare from Duke Hightower. That glare pushed him back into his previous position.

The Duke guffawed, “There’s no shame in your body, Eileen, you’re gorgeous! The only men in this room who aren’t married are your brother and Jeremy back there, but he’s been around your entire life, so I’d be willing to bet that he’s seen your naked form on more than one occasion, so there’s nothing to be shy about.” His voice turned steely, “You’ll be taking those pills, get ready.”

Behind me, Jeremy, whose name I had somehow guessed correctly, nearly passed out when Duke Hightower mentioned that he’d probably seen Eileen’s naked body.

I thought something was up and Keiko agreed with me, “Oh yeah, if they’re not a couple, they’re at least hooking up. No question.” Keiko’s voice was surprisingly girlish as she spoke mentally.

I wasn’t as convinced, “I’d say that he’s probably fantasized about her naked body, but that he has yet to see it in person because he always hides his face, even when she’s undressed in front of him. That’d be my bet.”

Sensei weighed in, “It’s been a long time since I was courting, but the looks Eileen’s given Jeremy are very similar to the looks my wife gave me back before we ran away together. The thing is, those aren’t the looks you give someone you’re sleeping with; those are the looks you give someone you want to sleep with. I think Steven is probably incorrect, but he’s closer than you are, Keiko. He’s probably seen her naked body, but never touched it directly.”

Keiko huffed back mentally, “Ugh, you’re probably right. He seems to be a bit of a goody-goody to be doing anything so… salacious.”

As we continued down that line of conversation, Eileen stopped resisting and prepared the formation circle for her break through to Sage. When I looked up to check on what she had been doing, I saw that she’d laid down two concentric circular formations and was sitting in the middle of a singular hexagonal formation within those circular formations. Gone was her yellow dress and in its place was a white gi, which was probably what she would normally have worn while sparring.

Laid out before her were two of Amethyst Frost Pills I’d made, along with two purple vials of potion. I couldn’t tell what kind.

She looked to her uncle and nodded, “I’m beginning now.” She picked up one of the Amethyst Frost Pills and popped it in her mouth.

Chapter 56

The beginning of Eileen’s breakthrough wasn’t anything special. It was simply someone gathering up a lot of qi at one time and pushing it into their lower core so they could spin it up into a fever pitch. Most of that was internal, but the room did get slightly warmer, what with all the wind and water qi she was pulling in. Pull out fire qi and it gets colder, pull out water and wind qi, it gets warmer.

About half an hour into the process, Sensei sent a quick message to Keiko and I, “Pay attention. This is something you’ll be doing in the not-too-distant future. This is a rare opportunity for the pair of you. Breaking through to Sage is something that is usually done in private, so take advantage of this.”

We watched as Eileen took the second of the Amethyst Frost Pills, unlike the first, which had almost no visible effect, the second immediately coated her body in purple ice. A few moments later, she gasped as golden light radiated out of her entire body, shattering the purple ice that had just formed. The light almost acted as if it had physical form, because it tore her white gi to shreds, leaving behind a brightly glowing nude woman before us.

Keiko quickly reached up and covered my eyes, which made me giggle, but she just huffed. Instead of staring at Keiko’s hand, I turned around to look at Jeremy and saw that he was absolutely gobsmacked. The man couldn’t have been more smitten if she’d walked up and kissed him on the lips.

A few moments later, the golden light dimmed to be comparable to that of a torch before fading entirely. Thirty seconds later, Keiko told me I could turn back around and, when I did, I saw that Eileen was exactly as she had been, in another white gi.

I wasn’t impressed, so I asked Sensei what was going on, “Why does she look the same? I thought her body was supposed to be reforged with qi when she broke through to become a Sage? Was I wrong about that?”

“Nothing could be further from the truth, her body has been completely rebuilt, from the ground up. She’s obviously cultivated well, because there are very few imperfections in her new form. It’s almost an exact replica of what she had before. Her hair is a little shinier and her teeth are a little straighter, but that’s about it. That’s what happens when you break through to become a Sage, your body rebuilds itself into an idealized version of yourself. Steven, your scars will all be gone, though the emotional effects of them will remain forever. Keiko, your lower core will be completely rebuilt, absorbing the universal monster core that’s currently holding its place.

“That’s what happens, your body gets reset to exactly what it was supposed to be, assuming you’ve cultivated properly and that you have a good balance of the different types of qi inside you. No one in thousands of years has cultivated properly, including light and dark qi into their cycles, so breaking through to become Sage has probably become something that’s almost symbolic, seeing as cultivators’ bodies don’t see nearly as large a rise in strength without those two. Don’t worry, your transformations will be significantly more extravagant, I promise.” He laughed.

Keiko and I exchanged glances, we wanted something extravagant, but we had a long way to go before we could pull it off safely. Either way, we knew what was coming for us, so we’d have to make sure we were totally prepared.

Eileen did a little twirl in excitement before running up and hugging her uncle, “Uncle! I did it, I broke through to become a Sage! My leg doesn’t hurt anymore and my limp is gone!”

Duke Hightower hugged his niece tightly, “You did an amazing job, I’m very proud of you.” He pushed her gently away, “Why don’t you go and tell your aunt about this? I bet she would love to see you as you are now, night clothes and all.”

Eileen groaned, “This is a gi Uncle! I wear them all the time when training.” She hopped up and gave him a kiss on the cheek before running away, “See you later, everyone!” She winked once more at Jeremy, sending him almost to his knees again.

Duke Hightower looked at Keiko and I with a wicked gleam in his eye, “Here’s your deal. Take it or leave it. You two are going to work for me as craftsmen for five years. In that time, you will produce any type of alchemical preparations and formations that I request of you. In return, you will be provided some of the finest housing in Hightower along with a generous stipend.”

Before we could butt in, he held up a hand to stop us, “I’ve also been told that you are the ones who bonded the Bladestorm Coatl my men found in that village. As much as I’d love to own it, five years of service from you two is worth more to me than it is. As a show of good faith, you can have it back, starting today, as long as you’re willing to commit to a contract seal agreeing to the terms I’ve stated.”

Keiko and I exchanged a look for half a second before nodding and walking around the table to stand before the Duke. In unison, we spoke, “Produce the seal, we’re ready right now.”

Duke Hightower stood and walked down off the dais to stand before us. He smirked, “Excellent.”

Epilogue

Kabis flew on wings of dripping black over a large crater in the mountains that was still smoking. There appeared to be what had been a long sloping path leading up to what appeared to have been an entrance cave, but there was nothing moving inside it, or the crater. He sneered as he slowly lowered himself down to the ground.

“This was the last place marked on my map where those worms were located. I wonder what happened here?” He strode around the crater a few minutes before finding the charred remains of a doll that he kicked away in derision.

He shrugged before realization dawned upon him, at which time he roared, “Stars-damnit! I’ll find you worms, and when I do, I’ll kill you and everyone around you. That’s a promise, or my name isn’t Kabis, Major of the Dark God’s army!”

His roar echoed throughout the region, almost reaching Hightower, but not quite.