After weeks spent running around in the wilds, it wasn’t difficult for Sen and Lo ifeng to pass themselves off as weary travelers looking for an inn at the gates of Lin Wen’s Redoubt. The guards waved them through without so much as a second glance. Old feelings of unease rose up in Sen on reflex as they entered the small city, but they struck him as more reflexive than real. He was hiding, and Lo ifeng was doing sothing to keep her presence muted. Sen made a ntal note to ask her about it later. While his approach was highly effective, it was also taxing and dampened his senses more than he was comfortable with in a potentially hostile environnt. Although, being uncomfortable on a lot of levels was becoming a depressingly familiar state of affairs. Still, if he could learn a different way to obscure his presence, that could only be a good thing.
They quickly blended into the throng of other people going about their daily lives. At least they tried to blend in. They had spent so much ti away from people that he’d forgotten that his appearance often provoked strong reactions. He started doing his best to keep his head down like he was deep in thought in thought or exceptionally tired. He heard Lo ifeng make a disgruntled noise. He glanced her way, but she just shook her head. Apparently, she’d forgotten about that problem as well. The head down technique wasn’t foolproof by any asure, but it did help. After she was confident that they hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention, Lo ifeng had them stop and get food at a cart in a small market. They made their way over to a wall to, in theory, eat the food. They waited until an argunt broke out between one of the vendors and a custor. Sen and Lo ifeng took that opportunity to scan the crowd. No one was paying them any attention, so they slipped into a nearby alley.
After that, they made much better ti and drew less attention as they moved from alley to alley. The only downside was that they were forced to beat a few thugs with poor survival instincts into unconsciousness. Sen felt a slight pang of sympathy for those thugs. He could easily have beco one of them if Master Feng hadn’t changed the course of his life. It wasn’t enough sympathy to stay his hand, but he might have pulled his punches a little more than he otherwise might have. It seed Lo ifeng noticed because she lifted an eyebrow at him.
“Are these your cousins or sothing?” she asked.
“No.”
“Then why are you going so easy on them?”
“These people didn’t co looking for us. We invaded their territory. I’m not going to break their bones just because they annoyed .”
Lo ifeng thought that over for a mont. “Alright. I guess that’s fair.”
Twenty minutes and a few more pointless scuffles later, they slipped out of an alley and made their way into a nondescript-looking little shop. Lo ifeng spoke briefly with the woman at the counter before the pair of them were ushered into a back room. A profoundly obese man sat in the room, looking very put upon. There were empty teacups scattered everywhere, so of them still half-full, and others holding down piles of paper. He held a still steaming cup in one hand as he squinted down at a scroll and made so kind of notes on it. He glanced up at the pair as they entered the room and let out a frustrated breath.
“What do you want?” the obese man demanded, his eyes narrowing so much that they all but disappeared into the fat on his face.
“No viper is so deadly as the one you never see,” said Lo ifeng.
The man sat straight up in his chair. “No den is as secure as the one hidden in plain view.”
“I need to send a ssage,” said Lo ifeng.
“Recipient?” asked the man.
“The Patriarch.”
The fat man glanced up at her, then his eyes shifted to Sen. There was a mont of confusion as he glanced back and forth between Sen and Lo ifeng. The dawning realization on the man’s face was almost comical to Sen. The man tried to stand up, bow, and put his teacup down all at the sa ti. He mostly just succeeded in spilling his tea on scrolls that Sen hoped weren’t important. They waited as the man cursed, called for an assistant, and eventually managed to clean up the worst of the spill. Once that was accomplished and the assistant dismissed, the man turned his attention back to his guests.
“You are Lo ifeng?” the man asked.
“I am.”
“Then, you are Judgnt’s Gale?”
Sen almost suppressed this frustrated sigh. “Yeah, that’s .”
“Then, this is a blessed day, indeed.”
“Why is that?” asked Sen.
“The Patriarch believed you both dead. His anger has been,” the man searched for a word to encapsulate it, “profound.”
Sen grimaced. “I hope he hasn’t taken that anger out on his employees.”
The obese man shook his head. “Not specifically, but we’ve all done our best to soften any bad news as much as possible.”
“Probably wise,” said Lo ifeng. “Now, a scroll, brush, and ink, if you please. We aren’t planning to stay long.”
“You must stay!” cried the man.
Sen and Lo ifeng traded perplexed looks.
“Why?” asked Lo ifeng.
“The Patriarch will be enraged if one of us knew where you were and then let you leave.”
“He won’t,” said Lo ifeng. “He’ll understand after he receives the ssage. Now, scroll, ink, and a brush. Please.”
The obese man continued his protests, but he did as he asked. Sen decided to keep out of the odd, almost-argunt, contest-of-wills that was happening between Lo ifeng and her contact. He knew full well how it was going to play out, and Lo ifeng didn’t need his help. Her contact was underequipped to win in any battle of wills with the woman. For her part, Lo ifeng kept up a steady stream of denials and verbal diversions while she also wrote out a ssage. While Sen was used to controlling multiple flows of qi at a ti, even while fighting, he’d never really tried to do more than one mundane task at a ti. It looked difficult. He supposed it was the kind of thing that you had to practice, and he never had. He figured he should redy that. Singular focus was a good thing for so situations, but he could see the advantages of being able to divide his attention like Lo ifeng was doing.
When she’d finished writing, she dried the ink with a tiny burst of her qi. Then, she sealed the scroll with both qi and wax, before she handed it over to the still-protesting man. Sen frowned at that. It felt to him like the man was trying too hard to get them to stay. Sen walked over to the table and glared at the man, who went very still under Sen’s intense expression.
“Who did you tell we were here?” Sen asked.
Lo ifeng shot Sen a sharp look, then seed to ntally step back from the imdiate situation. Her glare joined Sen’s. The obese man held his hands up in front of him and started laughing. Sen supposed it was ant to be disarming, but it ca across as pure hysteria.
“No one,” the contact declared. “I told no one.”
Sen nodded and then drew his jian. The contact’s eyes went wide at the sight of the blade.
“Now, I start cutting off a limb for every lie. Who did you tell we were here?”
The obese man’s eyes never left the jian. He started shaking. “I, I…”
“If you don’t answer the question, I’m going to consider that a lie,” noted Sen in a bored voice as he lifted the sword a little.
“Yeung Fen!” shrieked the man.
“And who is Yeung Fen?” asked Lo ifeng.
“A rchant! She’s a local rchant.”
“And why would a woman who’s just a local rchant know or care about us?” asked Sen.
“Equally important, how would she know about you?” Lo ifeng asked as a compact fireball ignited less than six inches from the contact’s face.
“She approached ,” said the contact as an unhealthy flush crept up his face.
Lo ifeng shook her head. “I hope it was a lot of money and that you left it sowhere your family can find it.”
“You don’t understand!” shouted the contact.
“I think we do. Should I do it?” Sen asked Lo ifeng.
“No,” she said. “This one is on .”
Sen stepped back as the fireball transford into a tiny shaft of white fla and drove itself through the man’s forehead. The obese man collapsed backward. The stink of burning hair and charred flesh started filling the room. Sen wrinkled his nose in disgust as he gestured at the scroll.
“Should we destroy that?”
“No. I want them to find it.”
It was Sen’s turn to give Lo ifeng a sharp look. “You knew?”
“I suspected. He was trying way too hard to get us to stay. If he’d made a few protests, it would have made sense. Going on and on that way, he had to be up to sothing. I assu that’s what gave it away to you.”
“Yeah. I’m kind of surprised, though. I’d have thought that the threat of Master Feng’s vengeance would have deterred this sort of thing.”
“It usually does,” said Lo ifeng. “But money right now can overco soone’s fear of a distant threat, no matter how inevitable and inexorable that threat might be.”
“So, basically, so people are stupid and weak-willed. Still, this all feels a little unlikely to .”
“No, you’re honestly overthinking this one. We were heading this way and your associations were becoming known. I bet those demonic cultivators spent a lot of ti and money on preparing the ground here six or eight months ago. It’s pretty clear that this guy,” she gestured at the smoldering corpse, “was indiscrete. It wouldn’t have been hard for people to figure out who and what he was.”
“I guess that could be true.”
“It’s the likeliest scenario. Now, let’s go before we have to fight our way out of this city.”
Sen snorted. “Do you really think we’re getting out of this city without a fight?”
“Maybe, if we hurry.”
What she left unsaid, but Sen understood all the sa, was that they’d just be putting the fight off until they were away from the city. But Sen would rather fight out in the wild than in a city anyway. He could do things in the wilds that were impractical, if not impossible, in a city. Sen inclined his head to her.
“Lead the way, oh venerable one.”
“Do you want to get kicked again? Because I’d be happy to make that happen.”
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