Sorry about the delay. This is still last week's chapter, should hopefully be another update sooner than later.
It was nearly an hour past noon, sunlight dyed in cool shades of blue and green by thin screens of fine silk streaming through the many windows of the Alabaster Foam Pavilion. It was far from the finest restaurant in the Outer sect, a simple two-story structure of white stone decorated by mosaics and fluted columns near the edge of Outer Village, and served primarily the traditional foods of Vivid Rainbow Cliffs rather than the more refined imperial fare, but Calvin had found he quite liked the relaxed atmosphere and serene decor. Plus, the food was only moderately overpriced. Downright affordable, even.
He sat at a corner table, his back to the wall and his eyes half-lidded. Idly he listened to the conversations of the dozen-odd other patrons, silently committing interesting tidbits to memory. Most of it was just idle gossip, but even gossip could turn out to have surprising value, and he’d picked up more than one genuinely useful secret by quietly sitting in the right place at the right time. Unlike many of the sect’s finer establishments, the pavilion lacked sound-dampening formations around its tables. That probably made things somewhat less pleasant during busy evenings, but it wasn’t like he came here all that often.
Though outwardly he was the picture of calm, inside his thoughts bubbled uneasily. It took far more control than it should to stop his fingers from tapping against something—his glass, his leg, the table—and his qi cycled rapidly in agitation.
Gwen was late.
She’d never been late to one of their meetings before. Never. Not once.
Usually she was early. Ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Sometimes even very early, an hour or more. The first few times she would wait just out of the way, not wanting to intrude. Eventually, he’d dissuaded her from that particular habit and just made plans around the expectation that she would be there well before the agreed upon time.
It was kind of cute, after all. She was so bubbly and eager to please, a breath of fresh air compared to so many of the dour, serious disciples he’d dealt with over the years. A bit like Lulu that way—yet another reason he enjoyed working with those two—though without Wallis around Lulu was much more likely to be an hour late than anything resembling ‘on time’ unless something was genuinely important and urgent. Then she was as precise as an imperial clerk.
But now, it was edging on half an hour past when they agreed to meet. Close to an hour past when he’d expected her to arrive. And Calvin’s initial amusement—he still remembered the floaty, giddy feeling that lasted for days after a major breakthrough and made time seem oddly fluid; he could practically picture how flustered she would be when she rushed in, her cheeks scarlet as she gushed out a stream of apologies—was rapidly turning to ice.
One of the pavilion’s servers—a mortal girl with blue and green streaks dyed into her pale blonde hair and wearing a loose, flowing white dress-like garment covered in geometric embroidery—doing her rounds through the room stopped by his table. He vaguely recognized her from past visits, though he didn’t know her name. She looked a lot like the one of the hostesses, if much younger. Perhaps a daughter or much younger sister? She bowed her head and presented the heavy jug in her arms. “Would the young master like a refill?”
Calvin glanced distractedly at his glass, still half full of the vibrant red iced tea—minty and subtly sweet—that was one of the pavilion’s specialties. It had been poured for him practically the moment he’d been led to his seat, and he’d idly sipped on it as the minutes slipped past. It was good, refreshing after the mid-morning heat, and was also the only thing he’d so far had at the restaurant today.
It took him a moment longer to respond than it should have, but eventually he shook his head. “Actually, could I pay?” He took a deep breath. “I need to get going.”
The young woman looked quickly between him and the empty, untouched place setting across from him. “Of course, young master. The Alabaster Foam Pavilion appreciates your continued patronage. The house tea is, as ever, on the house, regardless of your other orders. We hope that you shall choose to return and…dine with us.”
Despite his agitation, Calvin’s lips briefly quirked up at the omitted word, and he appreciated the gesture. He stood up and, after a moment, left a small jade chit on the table where he’d been sitting. It was a fraction of what he’d have paid for his meal but significantly more than the cost of his drink. He did quite like this place.
The chit vanished into the girl’s sleeve. “Thank you, young master.” She curtsied smoothly despite the heavy jug in her arms, glancing briefly back at the empty setting. “Would the young master like to leave a message should someone come looking for him?”
Calvin’s lips tightened and his gut churned. He sorely hoped he was just jumping at shadows. That Gwen had just over slept or something, and they’d both be able to laugh it off over dinner. “Yeah,” he agreed. “That would be good. If Gwen comes by––Gwen Cordwain––tell her I’ve gone to meet her at her home.”
She curtsied again, bowing her head. “Of course, young master. I shall ensure the greeters are informed. Please, allow this one to show you out.”
Calvin’s qi continued to churn as he made his way through Outer Village and towards the outer district where Gwen rented her herbalist’s hut. He moved quickly, his senses peeled. Had she run into someone along the way? Yunfei perhaps, or one of his friends?
The sect took a very hard stance against Foundation realm seniors harassing those in the Gathering realm without a strong preexisting connection like that between a teacher and student, but were much more casual about interactions between those in the Foundation realm. Outright fighting was forbidden outside of designated areas, but posturing was not, and that sort of thing could get extremely unpleasant if you were unprepared.
Having your aura crushed by one more powerful than you was an extremely unpleasant experience, but not technically an attack. Neither was getting surrounded by a group and suppressed by qi and words with nowhere to escape too. Threats and attempts at extortion were not necessarily uncommon either.
He’d experienced a little bit of that when he’d first entered the Foundation realm. It had been an unpleasant surprise, but not something he’d been wholly unprepared for. It hadn’t lasted long and had stopped completely after his first mission outside the sect, once Ariadne had begun to proclaim that they were friends and Lulu had made it clear she had his back.
Gwen should have been safe from that. Her connection to him was rather well known by now, as was Ariadne’s favor. Now that he was ranked in the top thousand disciples, he had the standing to challenge just about any other ranked disciple outside the top ten, and there was a lot you could do to someone without triggering the barrier that would end the fight. Ariadne too could make a disciple’s life extremely difficult should she make it known that they had offended her.
But there were plenty of stupid people in the Outer sect. Stupid, desperate, lazy people scrabbling for every shred of value they could extract from a freshly advanced Foundation realm cultivator. And if she’d run into Yunfei, or worse, someone Yunfei had perhaps paid to harass her…The other cultivator had been extremely quiet these last few weeks. Calvin had expected him to do something, but he’d seen neither hide nor hair of Gwen’s former teacher since they’d both been rushed off to Medical Hall.
Calvin’s worries did not abate in the slightest as he drew closer to Gwen’s home. Maybe she had just slept in. A breakthrough could be both exhausting and energizing in equal measure. It was more than possible she’d just stayed up late into the night and then crashed in the early hours of the morning. It would be strange for her to still be asleep at this hour, but not impossible. Especially if she’d decided to channel her energy into some project––experimenting with new herbs, some alchemy practice perhaps…
He sped up, running down the near-empty streets. He rounded the final corner at a near sprint, doing his best to imagine what Gwen would think if she saw him in such a state rather than allow anxiety to cloud his thoughts further, and his eyes widened. He skidded to a stop, staring with shock and horror at what should have been a familiar sight of verdant herbs and flowers overflowing from their beds.
The hut looked like it had been ransacked, stripped down to its foundations. The front garden, where he had spent hours watching Gwen work and discussing herbalism, was just gone. Not just the herbs, but the raised beds and the dirt within them too. It looked like they had been scooped out entirely, leaving only the paths that had once led between them, now raised above the remaining soil by nearly a full foot. Her tools were gone too, the ones she’d kept out by the door. So was her pill furnace and its simple stand, as well as the folding stool she sometimes used while working in the garden.
The door to the hut hung open, as did several of the shutter. Through them, Calvin could see the same story repeated inside. There was no sign of the small vases that should have been clearly visible on the windowsills. No trace of the strings of drying herbs that typically hung from her rafters. No splashes of bright color from her makeshift tablecloth, nor the bright yellow curtain she’d hung to replace the drab beige one that separated the kitchen from her bedroom.
For several long seconds, Calvin just stared, silent and motionless. Then his aura erupted out from his control, filling the street and sparking where it crashed against the formations surrounding each of the nearby houses. He looked around wildly as though the culprit might appear before him at any moment, but the street was completely empty. No one else lived in this part of the district. Not for nearly a full street over, where the row of herbalist’s huts transitioned to forge cottages. Gwen had specifically picked her home for its isolation—she could be very private and shy at times. She liked to sing when she worked, and hadn’t wanted to disturb anyone trying to cultivate nearby.
He turned back to stare at the empty house, then stalked forward. There was a pounding in his ears, his blood thundering and his qi circulating with violent, turbulent force that pushed against the walls of his channels and made his gateless nodes shiver. He could taste hot, coppery blood on his tongue, and his skin felt hot. His steps felt heavy, like something was crushing him into the earth, though his footfalls were quite against the paving stones.
He passed easily through the fence gate, the formation around the hut parting for him as it always had. In the back of his mind, that registered as important. That meant the hut was still registered in a disciple’s name, and that disciple had allowed him in before. An unclaimed property’s formation, or one where he had not previously been welcomed in, would have made a token effort to rebuff him.
His eyes scanned the ground, but they only confirmed what he’d already seen. The garden was gone in its entirety, down to every leaf and root. Some of the former garden beds were only missing a few inches of soil, and he identified them as those growing herbs and flowers with shallow roots. Others had been dug out deep enough to bury a body, leaving not even a fragment of a root behind.
He stopped in the doorway, staring blankly at the nearly empty room within. All that was left was the furniture that had come with the hut––a table, a chair, some cabinets. Everything else was gone. Whoever had been here had been thorough. Very thorough. He checked everywhere he could think of and found nothing. Not even dust.
Eventually, he found himself outside. He slumped down onto the ground and leaned back, resting his head against the wooden fence ringing Gwen’s hut. His aura had stilled and his qi settled, but time had done nothing to settle his emotions. It had simply given him the opportunity to regain control of himself.
He felt…confused, more than anything. This couldn’t be something Yunfei had done, not directly. Neither he nor his family had the sort of presence nor influence within the sect that would explain this. They could provide their scion with a powerful weapon, sure, but this? No, not a chance. Not with what he knew of the Cao Consortium.
And he had no idea what else might have happened. It was clear that someone had taken Gwen, and he could understand why someone would want to do so, he just…hadn’t expected it. Not within the sect. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t how the Eight Peaks sect did things. They exploited their disciples, sure, but there were rules. Limits. Paths one could follow to rise and grow and overcome.
Or at least he thought that was how things were supposed to work.
Someone important had done this. He didn’t know how important, but it definitely wasn’t someone in the Outer sect. No matter who you were, no Outer sect disciple could get away with doing something so…brazen. Right? Right. He was pretty sure that was the case. He really hoped that was the case.
The Inner sect didn’t sound right either. Inner sect disciples had a lot more authority and privileges within the sect, but there were rules they had to follow. Most of the time they seemed to be just as tired and overworked as any of his fellow Outer sect disciples, simply with access to superior advancement resources and knowledge. They worked odd jobs, cultivated when they could, and paid their ruinous dues to the sect each quarter. Some succeeded, some endured, and some were crushed beneath that burden, just like the Outer disciples did. Some of them certainly could have done something like this, Core realm cultivators with techniques and abilities far beyond those of one in the Foundation realm. But could they get away with doing so? He didn’t know.
Sometimes the Scroll almost made him feel omniscient, revealing to him secrets of the world beyond anything one of his cultivation should have been aware of. Other times…
There were so many things he didn’t know.
Because if it wasn’t someone in the Inner or Outer sect, where did that leave him? He barely knew anything about the Core disciples, only the scraps that the sect intentionally revealed. He had even less knowledge of the sect’s Elders, Hall Masters, and those even further up the hierarchy. If one of them had decided to take Gwen…well. Maybe that was allowed. Or maybe it wasn’t, but who was he, an ant, to complain about the actions of one so far above him? Who could he even complain to? He didn’t know.
He didn’t know, didn’t know, didn’t know!
His hands pressed down against the ground, his mind filling with endless, useless facts. The stone was Qi Reinforced Basalt, Extremely Low quality. It had been quarried from one of the volcanoes in the north of the province and had been walked on by endless thousands of disciples over years beyond count. He could see how it had been cut, how it had been reinforced, and how it had been laid upon a bed of fine gravel and locked in place by mortar. None of it mattered. None of it was useful.
Calvin breathed deeply. It didn’t really help. He felt so useless. He was so angry. Why was he so angry? He’d barely even known Gwen. Had spent only a scant month truly interacting with her. That was barely a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things. A single breath in the vast time scales that powerful cultivators dealt in. He’d heard that those in the Core realm and beyond sometimes vanished for years into secluded cultivation, and some ancient clans and sects had ancestors who had not been seen in a dozen mortal generations as they pressed for their next advancements.
He tried to focus on that thought. That this was okay. That it didn’t concern him. Just because someone had seen Gwen’s worth and decided to make full use of it did not truly affect him. She was her own person, a fellow cultivator in the Foundation realm. He should be concerned about the secrets he’d shared with her, not the girl herself.
That didn’t help either.
Finally, he exhaled, his breath coming out in an explosive, heavy sigh. His chest hurt. He took in a breath and imagined he could smell the sweet, medicinal fragrance of herbs lingering on the air.
“Codex,” he whispered softly, eyes still closed. The Scroll unfurled, revealing the text that he had half-felt appear while he had been investigating the empty shell of Gwen’s home.
It wasn’t much. About as general as it could get. He didn’t think he’d ever seen such an open-ended objective.
It wasn’t really anything to go off of at all. No direction, no guidance, no nothing. And the reward felt almost…mocking.
But it felt like purpose.
Calvin’s pounding heart slowed, the bonfire that was his anger banking into a smoldering mound of molten coals.
He turned the objective over in his mind, slowly dissecting the words and considering his options. He needed to ask around, see if anyone had seen something. He needed to…talk to Yunfei. More than anything else however, he needed information. Ignorance was the enemy. And he knew exactly who to talk to.
Well. It seemed it was time to find out just how much value Ariadne put on their so-called friendship. How fun.