Chapter 179 (Draft)

A/N: Sorry for the delay! This was supposed to be posted the usual time on Monday, and I didn't notice that I missed it until just now. Well, there'll be two posts this evening instead.

I didn’t typically get nervous in crowds. But today, the undulating waves of humanity pressing through the space around me stressed me out. It felt like every eye was on me, possibly piercing my disguise. There could be any number of strong cultivators hiding within them, ones even I with my special ability couldn’t beat in a fight.

How Aston wasn’t a twitching mess, I didn’t know. But on the contrary, he actually seemed as solid and serene as a rock, grounding me. Maybe he’d moved past any anxiety into professional focus.

I breathed a slight sigh of relief when we turned from the plaza into a side street. It was still full, but not packed, and at least the looming temple fighters on one side of the square didn’t have us in their field of view anymore. My initial impression of the Zarian in their capital hadn’t changed too much. They were still, generally, tense, nervous, afraid, angry. But with crowds this size, there were a lot of individuals, and they felt and did things their own way. Some people kept joking and laughing with their friends as if nothing happened. Well, for all I knew, maybe they really didn’t care. It provided a constant background of noise that made it hard to pick anything out of the din, though, and I had to almost shut down my nose, too. My qi senses were barely better off.

“We’re almost there,” Aston muttered. In Zarian, considering our surroundings. His accent was almost unnoticeable, and didn’t even sound very Imperial to me.

“Great,” I replied.

In truth, we were probably wasting our time. The others had already started following the more promising leads. But I’d found myself with nothing much to do after Vana headed off to do her thing with her house, and I might still help. I hadn’t had more of a plan than wandering aimlessly through the city and seeing if something jumped out at me, but on Aston’s initiative, we were aiming our wanderings to see some temples and bases for the Storm’s following. I went along with that because nothing else happened and my intuition didn’t seem to have so much as tingled until now.

When we finally reached our next destination, I almost passed it. The compound looked unremarkable, just drab, slightly dirty white walls, no different from most of the surrounding buildings. Then again, this wasn’t a temple, just a base where priests, templars, and maybe sympathizers or lay helper people, whatever they called themselves, might meet, store stuff, or the like. They probably didn’t keep prisoners here, but it was worth checking out. Hopefully.

The other guard accompanying us (visibly, at least) slowed down slightly. She was farther ahead, so, this meant we caught up to her. I already knew one of the others was going to go around back of the building. But I focused my qi senses on what I could sense from it, carefully probing at the walls.

They were warded, but not all that well. Not well enough to keep out a surface level scan, or for that matter, not much better than the surroundings. Maybe we’d overestimated the importance of this spot. Unless this was actually more sophisticated and they had a second layer.

I turned the corner and tried not to seem like I wasn’t paying any attention to my surroundings as I focused on the wards, trying to tease out more information from them. I could dimly sense a few people inside the building, though none of them felt familiar, or all that strong. Of course, they could be hiding their strength. This way, I couldn’t tell.

I was just deliberating whether to take a chance and try to dive deeper into it when a message reached me. I blinked, stopping myself from looking around nervously, and kept walking unhurriedly. It was just a bit of qi, clearly sent from a communication talisman, and didn’t contain any actual words or other message. And I could tell it was sent by Tenira, her qi was unmistakable.

I caught Aston’s eye. Neither of us gave any indication that anything was wrong. We probably weren’t being watched, but there was no point taking a chance, and we didn’t want to draw any more attention to us than we had to. Still, we understood each other. We turned another corner and kept moving away from the priests’ compound. I knew the other guards were watching and would have figured out what was happening. Aston was in the seventh stage and knew Tenira, he had probably caught the taste of her qi even from his position.

She wouldn’t be sending a message like this casually, even without an actual content that could be overheard. Especially since she couldn’t know for sure where I was going to be. That meant that either they’d discovered something that required a quick response, or something was wrong. Possibly both.

I started walking quicker, going in roughly the direction the message had come from, not that I’d caught more than the very tail end of it. But I knew where Tenira was supposed to be, and she should have at least Kajare with her, if not more of the others. We’d been very clear about no one going anywhere alone. Of course, they could still have been separated. I told my heartbeat to calm down and focused on searching my surroundings for anything suspicious. We didn’t seem to have drawn any attention, at least. My connection to Rijoko lay cold and silent in the back of my head, but I suspected that he was metaphorically keeping half an eye on us.

We had quite a bit to go. Saria was almost as big as Thousand Lights City, and the inner portions of it tended to be filled with lower buildings and thus more sprawling. We moved quickly, mostly avoided streets that appeared too crowded, but it still limited how quickly we could go. I kept an eye out and my qi senses as open as I could, but given the environment, it just wasn’t possible to get a detailed assessment of anything potentially interesting. At least I didn’t have to worry about where we were going. Ever since I awakened my bloodline abilities, my sense of direction and locations seemed to be great, and I practically couldn’t get lost.

Once we neared the area where I expected my companions to be, we slowed down. I noticed that one of the guards who’d been keeping their distance from me and Aston was going ahead, presumably to check out the area and report back if there was any trouble. I wished I could just use my light affinity qi to scout, but that was probably not a good idea in the middle of a busy city street.

We turned off a main street into a side alley that led into an older quarter of the city. The buildings were a bit lower, expect for some that had obviously been modified later, with additional stories built on top in stone of a slightly different color. The streets were narrow, though still broad enough for a horse-drawn cart, and I could see the occasional bit of trash strewn around the back alleys we passed. Charming.But it was worth it, because I saw a few signs in different languages, with other alphabets. At least assuming those weren’t just specific symbols. All of them had Zarian text as well, and the foreign text was rather discreet, but this still indicated that this quarter housed immigrants. Probably mostly from the most recently conquered parts of the Dominion.

If I had to bet, these people would be less than patriotic, at least compared to the general Zarian population. The languages definitely indicated that. It was curious that the High Temple had set up such a large base here. Perhaps as a mission station? I’d also expect that the Basement had infiltrated the area pretty thoroughly, which might be why Vana had known to look here.

I stiffened slightly as I felt the brush of Aston’s mind against my own. I let him in, but didn’t give any outward reaction to the contact. ‘My lady, Li reports that there is no sign of Lady Tenira or her companions.’

Crap. I glanced at him, then back at the street. ‘I assume this is just from the outside? So they aren’t in the open, but might be in the building itself?’

‘Yes, my lady. The wards are too good to get a much information on what or who is inside.’

‘Well, there’s nothing for it, then. We’ll have to check it out. Tell one of the other guards to head back to the base and report, Aston.’

I altered my appearance slightly as we continued, careful to do it gradually so even someone watching me shouldn’t notice the change. By the time we reached the walls of our target, I still appeared to be a different girl than the one staying in Vana’s safehouse.

It was a pretty big complex, with outer wall set some distance from the actual main building, which rose at least three stories high and only had small windows. The whole thing looked old, as if it might have been built as a redoubt in ancient times, but was in good shape. The large gate stood open, but I noticed that the metal lock wasn’t shut, so you would be able to push it open quickly. I sensed someone hovering close by it. But the guard was right, they did have high quality wards, which made getting anything more from the inside of the building frustrating.

Still, it could be worse. I reminded myself that this wasn’t a closed enemy fortress. The priesthood actually wanted to interact with its people. This was a case where brute force wouldn’t at all be helpful, but that was hardly my only tool.

So I just knocked.

The knocks rang out with a dull thumping sound, three raps. Then there was silence for a few seconds, but I just waited patiently, Aston beside me standing still and letting out a subtle sigh. I sensed someone moving a moment before the door was pulled open.

“Yes?” It was a middle-aged man in what I thought were probably priestly robes, raising an eyebrow as he looked at me, Aston and the other guard who had just materialized beside me.

I would have expected them to be a little more welcoming. Although I didn’t know what had happened, and if they’d really caught a couple of intruders snooping around, it might make them more suspicious of strangers showing up now.

I didn’t let the speculation show on my face and just gave him a winning smile. It was a bit of a shame I wasn’t as pretty in this form. “Hello! I was hoping to speak to Head Priest Minu? This is his station, isn’t it?”

The man frowned, though it wasn’t a hostile expression. “No, we are headed by Priest Iano.”

“Oh, dang.” My face fell slightly, although I’d known from Vana’s background brief that that one was from another temple. “I must have confused something. Again.” I gave Aston a sideways glance. “Yes, I know, don’t even start, Tio.”

He raised his hands, protesting. “I didn’t say anything!”

“Good.” I turned back to the Zarian. “I’d still appreciate speaking to the head priest. Or if he’s absolutely not available, whoever else will see us.”

“May I ask what this is about?”

“Um.” I hesitated visibly. “It’s kind of a tricky matter. But important. I’m certain your Temple will want to know about this. It concerns the state of the city, I’d just rather discuss it with someone in charge, in private.”

The priest didn’t look particularly pleased, but at least he didn’t seem suspicious. I could see him wishing that we hadn’t shown up, but his professionalism and what was probably the general policy overruled it. “Of course. Just give me a moment, and I’ll let you in. I’ll see if he’s available. If not, his second certainly will be.”

True to his word, he led us into the compound after a few seconds, Aston and Li trailing behind me. I smiled pleasantly and didn’t let him see the way my gaze swept over the place, cataloging everything. There wasn’t much to see, really. While this station wasn’t as small as the one we’d come from, it was hardly a major temple. The buildings, a main and side wing, were the same bland beige stone as the surroundings, the space kept clean but almost bare of decorations.

“We’re not going to the main part of the building?” I asked. He’d led us into the central building, but veered to the side. “I thought that was where the head priest would have his offices.” I squinted. “You’re not just brushing us off, are you?”

As we walked, I detached little bits of light affinity qi and stuck them to the walls. They’d disintegrate pretty quickly, which was good since I didn’t want them to be caught, but they formed part of a technique I hadn’t used before. It was a bit too ‘traditional’ in its approach for my sentiments. It would still give me an idea of what went on here.

The Zarian sighed, clearly barely keeping from rolling his eyes. “Of course not,” he replied. “There’s been an accident in that part of the building and it’s closed off for casual use for now. Have no fear, you’ll meet someone with standing where we’re going.”

Even from here, I could tell that there hadn’t been any accident, at least not that would cause structural damage. Now that we were inside, I could sense the interior of the building much better. There were, however, a few spots where my sensed seemed almost to blank out. Probably warded. One of them was close to what I suspected would have been our path, and they clearly didn’t want to take a chance on us seeing something we shouldn’t.

“Alright.” I smiled more brightly at him. “Lead on, then.”

As we kept walking, I focused on my qi senses. I almost missed a step when I recognized two familiar presences. They were very dim, and I nearly missed them. Tenira and Kajare. I turned my head, exchanging a quick glance with Aston. Li was letting herself fall back, a slight shroud of darkness qi building around her. The two of them were farther ahead, just at the edge of one of those spaces. As I was watching, they moved further inside. Well, at least we found them. And Yarani? Maybe she got away.

I debated launching a surprise attack on our guide right now to free us to move around, but I didn’t know how noticeable that would be, when he would be missed. We might still get out of this in a better way, and if nothing else, whoever we were going to talk to would be a better target.

It seemed like we were here, anyway. I surreptitiously took a deep breath, looking down the corridor. Office space, clearly. No one was here yet, but I could sense someone coming. The door guard must have already talked to his superiors, or perhaps sensing our presence was enough.

Although it seemed like our plan had backfired quickly, I didn’t feel particularly upset. Instead, I actually felt a bit excited, nervous tension sharpening my mind. The qi connecting me to Rijoko almost seemed to tingle.

“Great, thank you,” I said. “I suppose we’ll wait. You wouldn’t happen to have a bit of water for us, would you?”

The Zarian’s exasperated sigh was totally worth it.