In a majestic tent, illuminated only by burning lamps in the middle of the mercenary camp, Yu Rael leaned back in her chair with a half-empty flask in one hand and a furrow in her brow. Her legs were crossed over the arm of the chair, boots still dusty. Her disposition? Terrible as usual.
"It's about damn time," she muttered when the tent flap stirred and Vaen stepped in, his cloak reeking of wind and sand.
He said slightly. "You called." Without expecting any answers he sat in a chair in front of her.
"I did," she replied, not looking up right away. Rather, she drained the rest of the flask, wiped her mouth across the back of her hand, and then nailed him with a look sharp enough to cut Qi threads. "Got a job for you. Not your usual done and vanished business."
Vaen's eyebrow rose. "That so?"
Yu Rael flung a scroll onto the table between them. It unrolled halfway, revealing a rough map of the southern mountain ranges. "There's a bastard up there. A real piece of work. But useful."
Her tone darkened, with an edge of irritation and calculation. "Calls himself a Qi Scholar. A Knowledge Cultivator. Early-stage Nascent Soul, older than most damn rocks in the Chaos Region probably. Knows how to make people like you — no beast bloodline, no fancy ancestors — advance past Foundation Establishment."
Vaen's eyes narrowed. "You want me to go to him?"
"I need you to get close. If he accepts you as a disciple, you learn. If not, you see how the process is done. I need that method. My lineage stagnated. I won't be able to advance any further from stage 3." She paused. "And I don't like having some fossils on a mountain holding all the cards."
He didn't respond immediately. Yu Rael leaned forward, elbows on the table, voice lowered now.
"I cannot go. Too risky and noticeable. He does not approve of my kind — too brutal, he says. Tch." She spat to the side. "That's rich coming from a man who once roasted elders in the Xinyue Empire for amusement."
Vaen spoke up. "What kind of man is he?"
"Depends on the day. He'll ignore you. He'll curse at you. He'll train you. But he's fair in a twisted old-man kind of way. If he believes you have potential, he won't kill you on sight." She glanced sideways. "That's the best offer you'll receive from a Nascent Soul freak around here."
The tent flap rustled again as one of her vice-captains slipped in — a wiry woman with a crooked smile and a piercing gaze, arms crossed over her black-leather vest. "You called me?"
Vaen ignored the nickname. Yu Rael sighed. "Yes, Kara. We are. You'll take him halfway, then turn him over to Kamael. He knows the trails."
Kara snorted. "Kamael talks too much."
"Gag him, then." Yu Rael stood up and tossed a token in Vaen's direction. "Present this if he hesitates. It's sealed with my seal."
Vaen snagged it out of the air. A simple metal badge, imprinted with the eight-pointed desert sun — her personal sigil. He tucked it into his robes without a word.
Yu Rael's voice softened as she passed him, her shoulder brushing against his for a moment. "Be careful. That mountain. It's not a mountain. You'll sense it."
He inclined his head slightly. "Will do."
She snorted. "And don't try to be clever. Just be. whatever strange thing you are that prompted me to let you live."
As Vaen stepped out into the cool desert dusk, Kara followed, laughing. "She just likes to use you."
Vaen had no reply. His thoughts had already returned to the mountain and the mysterious scholar who awaited him there — a man who had answers, or perhaps more chains.