Sobon met with Ki'el some time be-fore din-ner, and was pleased to find that the girl's knee was fair-ly well healed, though her sys-tem was be-gin-ning to get clogged by sticky med-i-c-i-nal qi, as Jom's had been. With a lit-tle ex-tra time to kill, Sobon de-cid-ed to study it, tak-ing a cou-ple sam-ples of the qi and form-ing aether and qi pat-terns that would re-veal the spe-cif-ic com-bi-na-tions of in-tent that went into it, while also promis-ing to Ki'el that she would ex-plain more lat-er on.

  In truth, Sobon knew to ex-pect some com-bi-na-tion of ac-tu-al in-sight and child-ish mis-un-der-stand-ings. She was some-what sur-prised, though, to find that the ac-tu-al make-up of med-i-c-i-nal qi seemed al-most to be a cor-rup-tion of some-thing much bet-ter de-signed. Some of the qi seemed to be tak-en from plants, which was no sur-prise; it had ex-act-ly the sort of deeply for-ti-fied, sto-ic na-ture of an en-ti-ty which could only act upon the world from with-in, hav-ing no mus-cles to speak of. And there were lay-ers of hu-man in-tent, some of which guid-ed the med-i-c-i-nal qi, oth-ers of which re-ject-ed parts of it.

  But those lay-ers of in-tent were then buried by an-oth-er lay-er, which forced high-er en-er-gy into and through all of the calmer, more pro-duc-tive aether pat-terns. The in-tent was clear--high en-er-gy plus med-ical qi had to equal high-er pow-er med-ical qi, right? Sobon made a face. It wasn't even ex-act-ly wrong, just poor-ly done. The am-pli-fi-ca-tion in-tent, if you want to call it that, was dis-mis-sive of many of the sub-tleties, and so the high in-ten-si-ty heal-ing also came with dam-aged, left-over qi that was vi-o-lent-ly torn away from the whole it had been a part of.

  In all, it was a pass-able at-tempt at med-ical aether, Sobon de-cid-ed, and easy enough to repli-cate if you had the right plants to sup-ply the base, though she would still pre-fer to use the Coro-na's med-ical pat-terns where pos-si-ble. Plants had a place in most worlds' med-ical his-to-ries for a great many rea-sons, but in the end, they were sim-ple en-ti-ties who had no un-der-stand-ing of ad-vanced an-i-mal bi-ol-o-gy or mind. Both chem-i-cal-ly and in spir-it, plants touched on fan-tas-tic in-sights, but ap-ply-ing those in-sights to a hu-man could be prob-lem-at-ic.

  "Hm," was all that Sobon ac-tu-al-ly said out loud, af-ter study-ing the sam-ples of med-ical qi for a good half an hour, then shook her head. "Well, it's in-ter-est-ing, but my ad-vice is what it would have been be-fore. Flush out the med-ical qi with your own aether once the treat-ment is done." She glanced out a near-by win-dow, to get an un-der-stand-ing of the time. "We are in-vit-ed to a din-ner with the Base Com-man-der tonight. I pro-vid-ed her... some in-sight. Per-haps too much."

  Ki'el gave Sobon a look, which in-clud-ed a bit of judge-ment that Sobon sup-posed she had earned. "In-sight. De-spite what these peo-ple have done."

  Sobon shrugged. "I don't think it will let them take over the world. And in truth, I ex-pect they will... mis-un-der-stand. We can speak more on it, lat-er." Sobon flicked a med-ical di-ag-nos-tic pat-tern over Ki'el's knee again, al-though she had al-ready done so when she came in. It just... re-as-sured her, see-ing that the girl would be able to walk with-out do-ing more dam-age. "For now... we should prob-a-bly get some-thing to wear."

  Ki'el looked dis-gust-ed at that, and Sobon didn't blame her. In truth, Sobon had no in-ter-est in play-ing fa-vors with even a high-rank-ing mil-i-tary agent, but there was a spir-i-tu-al as-pect to dis-play-ing one-self a cer-tain way, one that res-onat-ed deeply in peo-ple's hearts. As at the Bilg mil-i-tary base... it could be very easy to con-vince a per-son's spir-it that one per-son was right, and an-oth-er one wrong, if out-side fac-tors res-onat-ed with those truths. And while Alas-si's clothes were in good con-di-tion, nei-ther she nor Sobon had picked them for so-cial pur-pos-es. Ki'el, who had picked up new clothes since Sobon had last seen her, had a mis-matched look that showed clear-ly that she would take what-ev-er she could get with-out com-plaint.

  Al-though Sobon end-ed up ar-gu-ing for a mo-ment with the med-ical or-der-ly in charge of Ki'el, the two were able to leave peace-ful-ly with-in a few min-utes, and Ki'el flushed out her sys-tem with her own right-hand aether as the two walked out of the base and into a large town at-tached to the base, which Sobon ex-pect-ed the lo-cals would also la-bel a 'city'. A few ques-tions asked and an-swered led them to a fan-cy-look-ing cloth-ier's shop, whose name, if Sobon's lim-it-ed un-der-stand-ing of Djang writ-ing was cor-rect, was some-thing like "Transcendent Gem Shin-ing Per-son's Hon-or Shop." The char-ac-ters seemed a bit am-bigu-ous, and Alas-si sug-gest-ed they might have mul-ti-ple read-ings, but Sobon frankly didn't care about the de-tails.

  As with the shops Sobon had seen in Emer-ald Val-ley, there was a youngish girl sta-tioned near the door, whose de-meanor was that of a man-nequin un-til pressed into ser-vice as a sales-per-son. For-tu-nate-ly, she passed Sobon and Ki'el off to a more know-ing fig-ure with-in min-utes, es-sen-tial-ly the very mo-ment Sobon men-tioned din-ner with the Base Com-man-der. And thus was Sobon in-tro-duced to a chub-by man in very el-e-gant, well-fit-ted clothes, who in-tro-duced him-self as Man Gai.

  "Wel-come, wel-come," Man Gai said, look-ing ac-tu-al-ly pleased to have some-thing to do. Al-though his eyes tore over every bit of Sobon's and Ki'el's bod-ies and clothes, Sobon could sense noth-ing to his gaze but pro-fes-sion-al in-ter-est. "You are look-ing for clothes, but more than just that, I think? Nei-ther of you shows in-ter-est in the art of cloth, but I sense that you are pow-er-ful peo-ple, in-ter-est-ing peo-ple. I think there is much in-side to show off."

  Ki'el bris-tled at that, or per-haps at the chub-by man eye-ing her, but Sobon just spoke qui-et-ly. "We would sim-ply like to rep-re-sent our-selves well in front of Base Com-man-der Rai at din-ner. We do not need to... dom-i-nate, so-cial-ly. But we would like to pre-sent our-selves as peo-ple who will not be con-trolled."

  Gai tapped his chin with one pudgy fin-ger, meet-ing Sobon's eyes, and then nod-ded. "You have your se-crets, and wish to keep them."

  "Ex-act-ly." Giv-en what Sobon had seen of Djang cloth-ing so far, she had sus-pect-ed that a re-spect-ed cloth-ier would un-der-stand these sub-tleties.

  Some-how, with lit-tle more than that from ei-ther Sobon or Ki'el, the man be-gan his work, call-ing out to back rooms for cloth of var-i-ous col-ors, ma-te-ri-als, and pat-terns. Al-though it end-ed up tak-ing a cou-ple hours--only the first half-hour or so re-quir-ing their ac-tive at-ten-tion--by the end of it, Sobon and Ki'el were dressed in clothes that even Ki'el had to ad-mit were a per-fect fit for them, at the very least in their cur-rent cir-cum-stances.

  Ki'el was dressed in what Alas-si rec-og-nized as Djang fight-er's wear, and which Ki'el her-self would lat-er ad-mit was clear-ly in-spired by Il-lan style, though Ki'el had not told him she was from the Il-lan isles. It was mod-est-ly cut in many ways, styled for free move-ment, and if Sobon looked close-ly, she could con-vince her-self that it was in-tend-ed to take some bat-tle dam-age with-out los-ing its over-all struc-ture; the pieces that clung to her pri-vate parts were re-in-forced, but sub-tly, and al-though the piece in to-tal hung from her shoul-ders, once she fas-tened it shut, the low-er part would hang off of her hips even if the up-per part were de-stroyed.

  Sobon's own dress was ma-tron-ly, ac-cord-ing to both Ki'el and Alas-si, and Sobon could agree as she looked in the mir-ror that they gave her the look of a wise old-er woman, if one stiffer than Sobon hoped she was. Sobon her-self couldn't quite pin what gave off the im-pres-sion, and stopped try-ing; it was enough that it was a good piece, with sev-er-al sub-tle and less-sub-tle tex-tures that blend-ed to-geth-er well, and Sobon was pleased to find that there were also many sub-tle, hid-den pock-ets on the in-te-ri-or and ex-te-ri-or of the gar-ment. Alas-si also be-grudg-ing-ly ad-mit-ted that the dress had styl-is-tic nods to her peo-ple, but didn't say more than that, and Sobon didn't press.

  Sobon paid for the clothes with a stipend that Com-man-der Rai had giv-en her, most-ly un-sur-prised that the ex-per-tise didn't come cheap. Sobon chose not to hag-gle, al-though Alas-si warned it would be wise, and the two walked out as Man Gai bowed and wished them well, while his spir-it shone with a ra-di-ance that sug-gest-ed Sobon had prob-a-bly over-paid. In truth, Rai had giv-en her a sub-stan-tial amount of mon-ey--around a hun-dred gildra, gold-edged coins that Alas-si con-veyed were ten sil-vra, sil-ver edged coins apiece.

  The coin names, Sobon not-ed, were them-selves not Djang, and Alas-si ad-mit-ted that many peo-ple used the old Ijian names for cur-ren-cy, which it-self had his-to-ry. Be-cause be-fore the Djang em-pire had been the Ijian Em-pire, and be-fore them had been oth-ers. There were some places that in-sist-ed on us-ing Djang names for cur-ren-cy--but the cur-ren-cy was the same, and ef-forts by the Djang Em-pire to squash the old names had failed. [ Failed com-plete-ly, ] Sobon grumped qui-et-ly to her-self, [ if even their mil-i-tary base guards don't use their own names. ]

  [ In truth, the Djang names are aw-ful. I was told that they have some-thing to do with qi, but I nev-er un-der-stood, and most peo-ple don't ei-ther. It is why the Djang Gildra have gem shapes along the sides. Elec-tra, above Gildra, have di-a-mond edges specif-i-cal-ly, and Pla-tra, above Elec-tra, have flame edges. But they in-sist that the of-fi-cial names of the coins are No-ble Gem, and Lord's Di-a-mond, and Im-mor-tal Flame coins. It would have been bad enough if they were sim-ple names, but they're em-bar-rass-ing to say. ]

  Sobon in-ward-ly re-turned Alas-si's com-ments with amuse-ment, but didn't let the ex-pres-sion show through her face. Since there was still a lit-tle time, Sobon found her-self wan-der-ing to-wards an-oth-er in-scrip-tion-ist's shop, al-though she sus-pect-ed that if they were any good, they would have been hired by the Base Com-man-der to fix some of the prob-lems Sobon her-self had dealt with. Or... per-haps they sim-ply wouldn't want to be hired to fix wa-ter heaters and cleans-ing sta-tions.

  Sobon found her-self pleased, then, to walk into the shop and find it well-stocked and with two ob-vi-ous guards. Her eyes roved around the room, tak-ing in a num-ber of dif-fer-ent items, and she filed away var-i-ous rune com-bi-na-tions as she looked around, both the ones that seemed cor-rect and the ones that were ob-vi-ous-ly mis-takes.

  "No eye shop-ping," said a woman be-hind the counter af-ter a mo-ment. "Our de-signs are pro-pri-etary. Buy some-thing or get out."

  Sobon glanced over to find, for the first time in a while, a Djang woman whose dress well and tru-ly didn't fit her style. She was dressed al-most shab-bi-ly, and Sobon not-ed that al-though she looked ful-ly adult, she was short, freck-led, and her hair a mess. She was, how-ev-er, in-tent-ly carv-ing into a bracelet with a sty-lus, one whose carv-ing point nar-rowed down to an in-sane-ly stiff hair.

  Ki'el bris-tled, and Sobon won-dered why the girl seemed to take an in-stant dis-like to the lit-tle grem-lin. "How are we sup-posed to shop with-out look-ing at your wares?"

  The woman paused, very care-ful-ly re-mov-ing the sty-lus from the work, then point-ed it at Ki'el with-out look-ing up. "Not talk-ing to you, dum-b-ass. You're too stu-pid to steal my de-signs. You," she point-ed the sty-lus at Sobon, "I can sense what you're do-ing. You're not just look-ing, you're read-ing. Buy some-thing or get out."

  Sobon couldn't help but smile and laugh at that, a re-ac-tion that nei-ther Ki'el nor the shop-keep-er seemed to un-der-stand im-me-di-ate-ly or ap-pre-ci-ate. She shook her head. "You are a sharp one," she said, and went back to glanc-ing around, though not with the in-ten-si-ty she'd had. "I don't in-tend to com-pete with you, I am only pass-ing through."

  "Com-pete," scoffed the woman, set-ting down her sty-lus and rais-ing her head. She had in-tense eyes, and looked weary. "I'm just sick of peo-ple copy-ing what I've done and claim-ing they're mas-ters be-cause of it. And al-ways, al-ways they get things wrong. Worse, they do all that af-ter not even hav-ing the de-cen-cy to buy some-thing. Just walk in, look around, smile through their teeth, and open up a shop claim-ing to be mas-ters. And then, af-ter that, they come back, des-per-ate-ly try-ing to look like they aren't try-ing to steal my work as they bore holes in them with their eyes. It's pa-thet-ic."

  Sobon nod-ded along, glanc-ing over the items. "Your work does seem bet-ter than oth-ers I've seen. Most of them rely on care-ful in-tent in the glyphs, not just the lay-out of the script. I can see how--"

  "It's both, of course," the woman in-ter-rupt-ed, sud-den-ly hop-ping up on the counter and swing-ing her legs over the front, show-ing that her feet were bare. Her loose shorts might have also been... some-what im-mod-dest, but Sobon didn't care. The woman, like Sobon, seemed pleased to have de-cent con-ver-sa-tion, for once. "But the tru-ly pro-found in-scrip-tions re-quire pro-found in-tent, and pro-found in-tent with-out pro-found in-scrip-tions is use-less." She raised her hand, and a knife from be-hind the counter flipped into her hand, as though of its own ac-cord. Then, with-out even flinch-ing, she drove the knife straight into her own thigh--and re-moved it again, as Ki'el gasped, to show that the blade had left no mark on her own body. "Pro-found truths re-quire pro-found minds to un-der-stand, while com-mon peo-ple can only stare in won-der and won-der what kind of cheap trick you just pulled."

  Sobon stud-ied the knife, but tried not to fo-cus on the in-scrip-tions them-selves. "That's cer-tain-ly not a cheap trick," Sobon ad-mit-ted, try-ing to make sense of what she'd seen. "Spa-tial pock-et?"

  "Got it in one." The woman sheathed the knife and tossed it hap-haz-ard-ly over her shoul-der. "Spa-tial mag-ic is a fas-ci-nat-ing dis-ci-pline even for the great-est in-scrip-tion-ists, but it's only knock-ing on the doors of a greater truth. What that truth is still es-capes even me, but I can see it. I just don't un-der-stand it." The short woman kicked her legs idly, like a child, but only as she was think-ing hard about some-thing. As soon as she came back to her-self, she stopped. "I get the feel-ing you know what I'm talk-ing about."

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  Sobon let a grin spread over her face. "I know a great many thing, enough that I too must keep se-crets. Es-pe-cial-ly, if you'll par-don my say-ing so, from the Em-pire."

  The shop guards trad-ed ner-vous looks, but the woman sitting on the counter just nod-ded. "They won't touch me, not as a na-tive Djang, but any for-eign-er who has some-thing they want, some-one will try to take by force. I un-der-stand. Per-haps some-day I'll take a trip, and we can talk far from any lis-ten-ing ears." She paused. "Oh. I am Lai Shi Po. Just in case, as you say, you're a for-eign-er and don't know my shop from a hole in the ground."

  Sobon laughed. "Shi-va Alas-si, from Emer-ald Val-ley to the west. Though I don't know if that is al-ways where I'll be, or what I'll be called." Sobon paused, very care-ful-ly as-sess-ing Lai Shi Po, be-fore quick-ly throw-ing to-geth-er a pri-va-cy pat-tern and send-ing her an aether pulse. [ If you go to the city, have the guards di-rect you to Sobon. It is... a slight-ly com-pli-cat-ed mat-ter. ]

  The woman nod-ded, out-ward-ly ig-nor-ing the aether con-struct, al-though she had a strange look in her eyes. "I doubt I'll go that way right away, but per-haps. The re-mote parts of the Em-pire are al-ways in-ter-est-ed in buy-ing up a few spa-tial rings for a hefty prof-it." Lai Shi Po snort-ed. "Those are al-ways the worst to have copied. Usu-al-ly, they copiers will say it's some-one else's work, which means that when they in-evitably fail, some-one else's rep-u-ta-tion gets dragged through the mud. It's why I don't even put them out for dis-play, or sell them to oth-er in-scrip-tion-ists."

  "Hm." Sobon let her-self sound a lit-tle dis-ap-point-ed, al-though it didn't sur-prise her. Any-one who did a bad job of mak-ing a spa-tial ar-ti-fact was play-ing a dan-ger-ous game, al-though since the Ri'lef's qi script re-lied on spa-tial pock-ets, it was more like-ly that the con-tents would sim-ply be-come lost. "Well, we have a din-ner to get to, but... what about a pro-tec-tive ar-ti-fact for my com-pan-ion, here?"

  In the end, they left for din-ner a good forty gildra lighter, but Sobon had both a pro-tec-tive bracelet that Ki'el wore on her wrist, and also, Lai Shi Po had thrown in what Sobon rec-og-nized as a non-func-tion-al spa-tial ring, one with the cor-rect in-scrip-tions but no in-tent. The two had trad-ed amused looks at that, Sobon rec-og-niz-ing it as a test, but she sim-ply pock-et-ed the item with-out com-ment.

  The restau-rant Rai Su Anin had cho-sen was, to sur-prise, ex-treme-ly ex-pen-sive and ex-clu-sive, the ex-act sort of place that Sobon had known she would feel en-tire-ly out of place walk-ing into with her pre-vi-ous clothes. Even the ones she had bought, though they were in per-fect con-di-tion and well-made, were in-ex-pen-sive com-pared to any-thing else she saw with-in. The maitre d' who met them at the front, a tall and thin woman who could have ri-valed Alas-si for hav-ing a per-ma-nent frown etched onto her face, gave their wear clear and un-mis-tak-able dis-ap-prov-ing looks, al-though she di-rect-ed the two of them to the Base Com-man-der's pri-vate table with-out com-ment.

  The in-side was lav-ish, and al-though Sobon could have found rea-son to com-plain about it, in truth she found it at least a bit re-fresh-ing. Not be-cause Sobon, in his old life, had hung out at in-cred-i-bly ex-pen-sive restau-rants in the past; no, it sim-ply was a much small-er con-trast to mod-ern restau-rants than any-thing else she'd seen. There were a few ta-bles through-out the mid-dle of the room, with qi fields for pri-va-cy, and a num-ber of pri-vate booths along the edges. There was live mu-sic be-ing played by well-dressed mu-si-cians, who were both very ob-vi-ous-ly be-ing seen not to be spy-ing on any-one, and also, very clear-ly spy-ing on who-ev-er they could. Wait-ers hur-ried to and from back doors to the kitchen, and every-thing was kept im-pec-ca-bly clean and fresh smelling. There were even sev-er-al wa-ter-falls, set against the sup-port-ing columns that held up the sec-ond floor, which had a bal-cony look-ing down on the first floor, which pro-vid-ed a pleas-ing mo-tion and sound.

  Sobon was a lit-tle sur-prised that the Base Com-man-der didn't take a sec-ond-sto-ry table; in-stead, they were tak-en to a pri-vate booth on one side of the low-er floor. Sobon not-ed that the booths to ei-ther side were filled, but with stiff peo-ple that seemed mil-i-tary them-selves, and she also not-ed that the pri-va-cy screens were not ful-ly set up, so that the guards on ei-ther side could hear the Base Com-man-der, at the very least if she shout-ed.

  "Lady Shi-va, and your dis-ci-ple. Doua Ki'el, I be-lieve?" Com-man-der Rai ges-tured to the bench across the cir-cu-lar table from her, as she re-laxed into her own couch, mak-ing no mo-tion to get up. "Please, be seat-ed."

  Sobon made no ef-fort to be for-mal, and with-in mo-ments, a serv-er that Sobon had not no-ticed hang-ing around near-by ar-rived, look-ing very pa-tient and for-mal. "Good evening. Do you need to be told what we have avail-able?"

  "I'll have my usu-al," Com-man-der Rai said, dis-mis-sive-ly, and the serv-er shift-ed his eyes to Alas-si and Ki'el."

  "What-ev-er the chef rec-om-mends," Sobon said, not par-tic-u-lar-ly keen on learn-ing a menu she wouldn't like-ly see again.

  "Fish and rice," was all Ki'el had to say.

  The serv-er sim-ply bowed and backed away, and Com-man-der Rai gave a wry grin. "As with a great many war-riors I have met, Lady Shi-va, you don't seem to ap-pre-ci-ate the fin-er things in life. In truth, in my first hun-dred years of life, I was much the same." She lift-ed a wine gob-let smelled it, and set it down with-out drink-ing. "By the time I could no longer pre-tend that I had lived one full life in its en-tire-ty, I be-gan to re-al-ize that I tru-ly did not en-joy liv-ing that way. Al-though death does not come eas-i-ly for those of us in the Gem Phase of Qi, it still can come. It would be a pity to live an-oth-er full cen-tu-ry and still re-gret my life."

  Ki'el shift-ed un-com-fort-ably, clear-ly un-cer-tain of how to deal with a girl that looked her age speak-ing of a cen-tu-ry of life, but Sobon ig-nored it. Al-though Sobon was tempt-ed to talk about his own past--since Com-man-der Rai would like-ly not know all the de-tails of Alas-si's--she stuck to the more ob-vi-ous an-swers. "I have my own re-grets in this life, Com-man-der Rai," she said. "Of time that I've wast-ed. Mis-takes made, and things left un-done. If I live long enough to see some of those mis-takes atoned for, per-haps there will be time for pleas-antries af-ter-wards. And if I do not live to see those mis-takes atoned for, I don't be-lieve that crea-ture com-forts in the mean-time will make up the dif-fer-ence."

  Com-man-der Rai's face dark-ened with those words, enough that it took the youth-ful cast off her fea-tures again, if not quite as much as Sobon's in-sight into qi had. "Re-grets," she said, lean-ing back onto the couch and let-ting her arms splay over the top of it. "Yes, war-riors have those. And I sup-pose that is part of why you no longer wish to be a war-rior. Those of us raised to war, es-pe-cial-ly, are told to bond with our teams, work close-ly with them, and then thrown into a mess that all but guar-an-tees we won't all come back alive."

  "By the time we are old enough and wise enough to un-der-stand what we could have done dif-fer-ent-ly, we can-not undo the at-tach-ments, can-not change back into the chil-dren we were be-fore." Her eyes flicked to Ki'el. "We can-not re-move the stains on our skin, or the mon-sters from our souls. We have be-come war-riors, through and through." One hand reached out to take the wine, and she swirled it and smelled it, but didn't drink.

  "It is not only war-riors who have scars," Ki'el said, her voice heavy with judge-ment. "My peo-ple were tak-en by pi-rates. My home--my fam-i-ly raped and mur-dered by peo-ple who went on to sell the sur-vivors as slaves. And I am led to be-lieve that the buy-ers were Djang."

  "I wouldn't doubt it," Rai Su Anin said, with a sigh. "The Di-a-mond Lord Him-self au-tho-rized a pro-gram of pri-va-teers, ships who would pil-lage to sell peo-ple to us. Not us, the mil-i-tary," she cor-rect-ed, her oth-er hand com-ing up to stop Ki'el be-ing riled up. "No-ble fam-i-lies, most-ly. There is too much work that needs to be done, too much mon-ey to be earned. If the no-ble fam-i-lies did the kind of aw-ful things they do to slaves to oth-er Djang in-stead, this coun-try would tear it-self apart. It's eas-i-er to pre-tend we are civ-il when we don't see our-selves in the vic-tims."

  Sobon could see the many in-tense feel-ings on Ki'el's face, and put a hand on her arm. Ki'el shot her a glare, and Sobon met her eyes. "I think this is not a healthy con-ver-sa-tion to have, Base Com-man-der," she said, "though I am sur-prised you speak so open-ly about your own peo-ple's sins."

  "Sins... that is a word for it. There are many for-eign con-cepts around evil. The Djang tend to fo-cus on the de-mon-ic, and I ful-ly agree that slav-ery is a de-mon-ic thing, but it is one that some em-brace as a source of pow-er." Com-man-der Rai fi-nal-ly took a sip of her wine. "But every word for evil be-comes un-der-stat-ed, even mean-ing-less, in the face of suc-cess, does it not? The few... pri-va-teers that I have had the un-pleas-ant for-tune to meet all had de-mon-ic qi in-side of them. But they were all of them suc-cess-ful. If I were to ar-gue that they should not have been demons... would any of them have seen suc-cess? The world would be a bet-ter place, but if they sunk into pover-ty and de-spair as a re-sult, wouldn't they dis-agree?"

  "I can-not be-lieve--" Ki'el be-gan to say, but the Com-man-der raised her voice to drown it out.

  "I don't agree with what they do," she said, with-out much emo-tion in her voice, "and I nev-er will, young Ki'el. I do not have the scars you have, but I see plain-ly that what they do cor-rupts them, the Djang, and the world at large. What I am try-ing to say, and what you would do well to un-der-stand, is that theirs is an evil that will not dis-ap-pear as long as it is giv-en a place to thrive. It must be erad-i-cat-ed, and as a mem-ber of the Di-a-mond Lord's Army, I am not per-mit-ted to do so. What-ev-er ar-gu-ments you have, they are not with me."

  "I can-not take your words as any-thing but the words of a cow-ard," said Ki'el, ac-cus-ing-ly.

  Sobon didn't sense any re-ac-tion in Com-man-der Rai, but did sense dis-com-fort from the booths on ei-ther side. They were in-ter-rupt-ed, though, when the servers re-turned, plac-ing three dish-es on the table. Ki'el had some kind of thin-ly sliced fish in sauce over rice and veg-eta-bles, while Sobon had a sur-pris-ing-ly mod-ern-look-ing dish of bread-ed and deep-fried meats and veg-eta-bles, with heav-i-ly spiced sauces over a small-er bed of rice. Rai had a mix-ture of sev-er-al dif-fer-ent items, but only a lit-tle of each--meats, dumplings, fried veg-eta-bles, all arranged around a sin-gle cup of sauce that smelled ex-treme-ly in-tense.

  "I am not hun-gry," Ki'el start-ed to com-plain, but Sobon put a hand on her arm, again, send-ing her a brief pulse of aether. [ It mat-ters how you phrase it to your-self, ] Sobon tried to say. [ The food isn't hers, and the mon-ey she paid doesn't taint your soul. This is just... tak-ing some small part of her re-sources for your-self. You might as well eat it. ]

  Ki'el looked back at her, strug-gling to put to-geth-er an an-swer-ing aether pulse. [ No like her. ]

  [ I know, ] Sobon said. [ Just eat. ]

  When Ki'el be-grudg-ing-ly start-ed eat-ing, Com-man-der Rai fi-nal-ly spoke. "Cow-ard... in a sense, I sup-pose. I could re-tire and fight the em-pire, but it would only get me killed. Al-though I have nev-er met the Di-a-mond Lord him-self, I am told that he is greater than any war-rior in our army, and pro-found-ly so. As though even our great-est war-riors, even the ones at the Flame Phase of Qi, are be-neath him. And those war-riors who are in the Flame Phase of Qi... they are so far be-yond me that to chal-lenge them would be fol-ly." The girl-ish woman dipped one of dumplings in sauce and bit into it, tak-ing a long mo-ment to chew and sa-vor the fla-vors.

  "In the end, all cow-ardice is un-will-ing-ness to face our own death or in-jury. In that sense, you are right. I will not face death, not when it won't change the Di-a-mond Lord's mind."

  Sobon took the time to eat her own food, and Ki'el forced her-self not to speak, which Sobon thought was a lit-tle out of the girl's char-ac-ter. So Sobon de-cid-ed to change the top-ic. "What can you tell me about the Di-a-mond Lord? What do the peo-ple who have seen him say about him?"

  "Very lit-tle," Com-man-der Rai ac-knowl-edged. "There was a pan-ic some years ago, when every-thing changed for the sec-ond time. They said that at that time, some-thing hap-pened to the Di-a-mond Lord. And since then, very lit-tle has come down from him. But peo-ple still meet with him to dis-cuss mat-ters of em-pire. They say that his per-son-al ma-sion on the Great Moun-tain is so full of pro-found ar-ti-facts that every-one who vis-its rais-es their qi just by lay-ing eyes on things that the Di-a-mond Lord had made. And yet... they also say that peo-ple fear to meet him. As far as I know, none have died vis-it-ing him, per-haps be-cause none were fool enough to chal-lenge him. He is far enough be-yond them all that no one dares ques-tion his will, or his wis-dom. But there has also not been a time since the Em-pire was found-ed that he has fought."

  Some-how, amidst her speak-ing, Com-man-der Rai man-aged to keep eat-ing, re-ly-ing on qi waves turned to ver-bal speech, in-stead of let-ting the waves car-ry the in-tent them-selves. Most like-ly, Sobon thought, that was so that the guards would know what she was say-ing, or per-haps be-cause she wor-ried Ki'el wouldn't un-der-stand. It didn't mat-ter, ei-ther way. "When every-thing changed, the sec-ond time?" Sobon asked, hop-ing the woman would clar-i-fy.

  "Mm," Com-man-der Rai nod-ded. "Of course, there was the ap-pear-ance of the Star-beasts. That was the first change, when the world tru-ly be-gan to shift to a more pro-found state. But some years af-ter that, there was a shift, and the na-ture of it was un-clear. Some-thing that a few clear-ly know of, but which none will speak about. Since then, the Di-a-mond Lord has changed. I be-lieve, or per-haps sim-ply hopoe, that he is in seclu-sion, try-ing to reach new depths of pro-fun-di-ty. None will say what oc-cu-pies him, only that some-thing clear-ly does. Some-thing more im-por-tant to him than mat-ters of Em-pire."

  He's try-ing to get into the Founder's fa-cil-i-ty, Sobon thought, the idea stick-ing to her and sour-ing her stom-ach. Al-though the food wasn't bad, the idea that the man--giv-en all else that he'd ac-com-plished--was still ac-tive-ly work-ing at it ter-ri-fied Sobon.

  I'm al-ready tak-ing too long. There is too much at stake. Sobon tried to keep the pan-ic down, and most-ly man-aged, but she couldn't stop it from re-turn-ing to the fore-front of her mind. So she shook her head, and asked what she hoped was a sim-ple, in-no-cent ques-tion.

  "I'm not too fa-mil-iar with the ge-og-ra-phy. How far is the Great Moun-tain from here?"

  The look that Com-man-der Rai gave showed enough cau-tion that Sobon knew that the woman sus-pect-ed some-thing from Sobon's tone or nerves, though she clear-ly wasn't sure what Sobon was think-ing. "It is in the very cen-ter of the Em-pire, the One True Moun-tain that puts all oth-er moun-tains to shame. Raised by the Di-a-mond Lord, it stands upon the great-est nexus of ge-o-mat-ic pow-ers in the world. Those who fol-low the Di-a-mond Lord can al-ways feel it, shin-ing like a bea-con in the night. But as to how far..." she shrugged. "Per-haps two thou-sand Li from here? For a long time, I have been more fo-cused on maps of the sea and the near-by lands, not the in-ner ge-og-ra-phy of the Em-pire."

  "I see." In truth, Sobon had guessed the gen-er-al di-rec-tion while fly-ing east, but had been far more in-ter-est-ed in find-ing Ki'el to wor-ry about it. How that she was sure... it was a lit-tle dif-fi-cult not to try to fly clos-er, but Sobon had no doubts that some-one like the Di-a-mond Lord would sense her com-ing, es-pe-cial-ly once she was ac-tu-al-ly strong enough to do some-thing of con-se-quence.

  For the rest of the din-ner, both Sobon and Ki'el most-ly plas-tered on masks of po-lite com-pa-ny, and lit-tle else was said of note. Both of them were too dis-turbed to en-joy their food, al-though Sobon did take her own ad-vice to Ki'el, and con-tin-ued eat-ing. It was, af-ter all, good food--ex-cel-lent-ly spiced and per-fect-ly cooked, it de-served what-ev-er cost the Base Com-man-der had paid. But when all was said and done, like Ki'el, Sobon re-al-ly wasn't in-ter-est-ed in en-joy-ing the Djang lux-u-ries.

  And so, af-ter fin-ish-ing their meals and en-dur-ing a few more un-in-tend-ed barbs from the Base Com-man-der, they left.

  correctly translated as Diamond Lord. "Transcendent Gem" is the name for the qi phase that includes Diamond Qi, and "Shining Person" is a specific word for a person who uses qi to bolster or bless the people under their charge. Although the Diamond Lord is no longer at the Transcendent Gem phase of qi (and hasn't been for a while--this is not the specific admission you may think it is) that is still the name they chose at the time of the Empire's founding. Ever since then, both the characters used for Diamond Lord, and the translation used for other cultures, were set in stone. Alassi has seen that particular set of characters before, but it was never translated for her.

  good Xianxia I'm sure I could lay out a number of times and places throughout the list that various profound and fantastical things happened. But I don't, and Sobon generally doesn't care.