Hi! Its uh...been a couple of days longer than it really should have been. Maybe a few more than a couple 😅.
To everyone who sent me a message/left a comment/etc asking if I was alright, I appreciate y'all. Same to everyone whose stuck around despite my rather poor communication skills. I did my best to keep people updated on Discord, but I really should have said something here too. TLDR: Life decided to give me some 'fun' little speed bumps. Hopefully through the worst of it now 🤞. Anyway, here's the next chapter! For all that he was sure that Gwen would not have chosen to disappear in such a manner of her own volition, Calvin was not so hasty as to dismiss the possibility out of hand. Nor was he willing to disregard the chance that someone living nearby had seen or heard something important. The Scroll had advised him to gather evidence and so that was what he would do, even if he only had the most surface-level idea of what that meant.
His initial inquiries bore little fruit. Gwen’s nearest neighbor—a Gathering realm disciple some years older than Calvin himself—could only confirm that he’d seen Gwen pass by on her way home the night before while he ate his evening meal outside. She had seemed in high spirits and they had exchanged only cursory greetings before she’d continued onward.
Another disciple living some doors down had passed by Gwen’s hut during her early morning run. She had not been paying any particular attention to her surroundings, but after one look at Gwen’s looted garden tentatively confirmed that she would have noticed such an abrupt departure from the overgrown huts on either side of it. That at least gave him an upper boundary on how long ago she’d been gone for.
Seven hours. A lot could happen in seven hours.
Beyond those two accounts, the rest of his time was utterly wasted. Either the inhabitants of the nearby forge cottages and herbalist’s huts had seen nothing or they were wholly absent. Still, he made sure to compensate his helpful juniors for their time and ensured they knew where to turn should they uncover something actionable. Perhaps something would come of it, or perhaps it wouldn’t. At least he felt like he was doing something.
After that, he headed home. The chance that Gwen had uprooted everything herself in a bid to move in with him full time was slim, but there was also a slightly higher probability that she’d been able to send him some manner of note or message. He hoped that she would have at the very least tried to contact him if she’d had the opportunity. Perhaps he’d misjudged things utterly and the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind.
Or maybe she really had been a secret Core disciple all along. Now that would be…
Well, it would certainly be something.
Regardless, there was a non-zero chance that something was waiting for him at his villa, and it was a small enough detour that it would be foolish to not check. He would feel extremely stupid rushing to Ariadne for help only to discover that there was an explanation waiting for him at his home.
Of course things couldn’t be so easy. He made it back to his villa in record time, cutting through groves of rainbow birch trees and circling along the edges of fields and orchards rather than follow any of the many roads crisscrossing the Outer sect. Qi sped his passage, his movement technique lengthening his strides and propelling him through the sect with undignified haste.
He found only Mei there waiting for him, hard at work tending to the nearly fully matured cloud blossoms. The tiny white flowers had become increasingly delicate over the past weeks, plump white petals turning translucent and shot through with feathery veins. All but two of the bushes had survived to maturity, and just this morning he had been extremely excited about the upcoming harvest. Now, it was a struggle to remember why he’d cared.
Just in case, he asked her if she’d seen anything. She’d been in the garden for most of the morning and into the afternoon. If anyone had come by…
She hadn’t.
Damn it.
“What?!”
Despite himself, Calvin took an involuntary step back as Ariadne’s voice rose in outrage, her aura flaring wildly. He’d felt her aura before––she usually had it flared during the social gatherings she sometimes invited him too––but never like this. Usually it was a gentle, seductive thing, subtly sweet and understated like fine tea. It was dangerous, but in the way a poisonous flower was dangerous. As long as you ignored the sweet scent and only admired the radiant petals from a distance, there was little it could do to hurt you.
This was nothing like that. This felt sharp. Cold. Vicious. Like the kiss of iron against his bare throat, its edge so sharp he could barely feel its bite.
And it had a weight behind it he’d somehow never noticed before. A certain pressure he associated with a far more developed Foundation than he’d thought Ariadne possessed. Though it clearly wasn’t fully stable, Ariadne’s Foundation felt solid in a way he’d only rarely seen in the past. It was certainly more impressive than Yunfei’s had been, though it was hard to feel any real specifics. Even now his sense of her Foundation was hazy, like it was covered by several layers of sheer silk sheets through which he could only gauge its general shape rather than any specifics.
In an instant he realized that he was a fool. Of course there was a way to conceal one’s Foundation, even when flaring your qi. He’d never come across any explicit mentions of such a technique, but it was obvious when he thought about it for any more than a moment. Flaring your qi the normal way gave away far too much information for cultivators to not have developed workarounds.
And if you had a way to conceal the details of your Foundation, why not also methods to alter its characteristics? Present only a single aspect of one’s cultivation at a time, rather than display it in its fullness. Yin was more than just seductive sweetness. It was cold and shadow, water and stillness. He’d known that there was so much more to Ariadne than the delicate socialite she liked to present herself as, and yet he too had allowed the beautiful exterior to cloud his perspective.
It took only a moment for Ariadne to regain control of herself. Her aura withdrew in an instant and her face regained the gentle smile she’d been wearing when he’d met her. In the space of a single heartbeat she was once more nothing but a beautiful flower, but Calvin suddenly found it a lot easier to not let his eyes wander.
She coughed lightly, covering her ruby lips with her fingers. “Ah, my apologies, brother Calvin. That was quite unbecoming of me.”
Calvin’s mouth felt rather dry. He swallowed heavily. “Uh, nothing to apologize for, sister. I, uh, my initial reaction was much the same.”
Ariadne’s eyes bore into him, the flecks of gold and blue in her hazel eyes seeming to almost shimmer from the intensity of her stare. “Thank you for your…understanding.” She leaned forward and Calvin hurriedly reminded himself of why he was here and what he’d just felt before his eyes could dip too far down. “Please, sit, and then I kindly ask that you explain what you mean when you say that someone took our dear junior sister.”
Calvin sat almost without thinking about it. It was always so easy to just do what Ariadne suggested. Especially when it was what he wanted to do in the first place. He was just glad that she was actually dressed today, unlike last time. He still sometimes found his mind wandering to the memories of that meeting, and it was hard enough to focus while talking to her as it was. Damp white fabric was simply unfair when draped over her bountiful form.
Though he was meeting her in the same clearing as last time, Ariadne had already been there waiting for him when Chloe brought him there. Or well, she hadn’t necessarily been waiting for him, but she had already been in the clearing. She had been seated in the small pagoda drinking tea and reading from a scroll. She once again wasn’t wearing her usual conservative dress and disciple’s robes, but rather a much more casual robe with a long slit up one leg and short sleeves. It vaguely reminded him of some of the imperial-style dresses he’d seen, though the hem went down to her knees rather than ending at mid-thigh.
He’d planned to broach the topic carefully, but the moment Ariadne had asked why he’d come to see her, it had spilled out. He hadn’t been very heavy on the details, but Ariadne’s clear anger gave him hope that she’d be willing to help.
Still, he shouldn’t have gotten ahead of himself. He needed to explain things properly. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, centering himself. This was not a social call. He had a quest to complete. Gwen was counting on him. He had to focus.
He took another deep breath and opened his eyes. For a moment, he was seized by the sudden urge to embellish things, to spin Ariadne a yarn like the overblown story he’d told her during their last one-on-one meeting after his return to the sect. She’d reacted so positively then, after all, and he wanted to see that smile she’d favored with him again. He could almost feel the touch of her finger against his lips, her bare leg pressed up against––
He bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood.
“I first realized that something was wrong only a few hours ago,” he began slowly, speaking with clipped precision. “I was supposed to meet Gwen for lunch at the Alabaster Foam Pavilion. She advanced to the Foundation realm yesterday. We were going to celebrate.” He licked his lips. “She never showed up.”
He waited for a moment for Ariadne to say something, but she didn’t. She was watching him intently. Very, very intently.
He continued in the same way. It was easier to focus like this, he found. His eyes were glued to Ariadne’s nose, and the table between them made it easier to ignore the gentle scent of her skin and hair. “I started to get worried about her after a few minutes. At first I thought it was something minor. She got delayed. Slept late. Something like that. But when I went to find her. She was gone.”
“Gone?” Ariadne prompted.
“Gone.” Calvin confirmed. “Her home was stripped to the foundation. All her things. All her herbs. All her alchemy equipment. All gone. The garden beds looked like someone scooped them out of the ground, soil and all.” He paused for a moment, his own cold anger coiling tightly inside his chest. “I asked around. No one saw anything. No one heard anything. She didn’t leave me any sort of note. Someone took her. I just know it. She wouldn’t have just disappeared if she had any sort of choice in the matter. I…” He trailed off, his eyes dropping down to stare at his own lap. “I didn’t think that sort of thing was supposed to happen here. Not in the sect.”
Ariadne’s voice cut through the silence like a knife. “It isn’t supposed to, no,” she practically hissed.
Calvin looked up quickly, surprised by the sudden venom in Ariadne’s voice. “What?” he asked reflexively.
She didn’t seem upset by the question. In fact, she looked visibly angry, her lips drawn into a tight line. “You’re right. That sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen within the Eight Peaks sect. It’s too brazen. The sect has systems. Rules. There is a certain way things are supposed to be done. And this certainly isn’t it.”
For a moment, hope bloomed in Calvin’s chest. Was it really that easy? Could he just… What, track down one of the sect enforcers and have one of them take care of things for him? That wasn’t a satisfying solution, but if it meant getting Gwen back as soon as possible…
Ariadne’s next words dashed that blossoming hope. She sneered, her beautiful features twisting into an ugly yet still utterly captivating expression. “But there are certainly those that could get away with it anyway,” she spat. “An actual elder could just formally take her as a disciple without the subterfuge and an Inner disciple wouldn’t dare. But maybe a Core disciple, or the favored child of a high-ranking elder. Especially since Gwen doesn’t have any family to protest the treatment and has already broken through to the Foundation realm.”
“What do you mean?” Calvin asked, his heart clenching tightly in his chest.
Though it wasn’t a particularly descriptive question, Ariadne seemed to understand what he was asking anyway. “If one of the higher ranking Core disciples decided they wanted me for themselves and gave me an offer I could not refuse, my family would not take it lightly.” Her voice turned bitter. “There is little they can truly do directly, not against someone with a Unity realm master, but such things are bad for a sect’s reputation and a Great Sect’s reputation is worth a lot more than a single disciple’s whims. And the Eight Peak sect’s rules on non-interference apply much more strictly to disciples in the Gathering realm. Gatherers are meant to be given time and space to grow. Those in the Foundation realm should stand on their own two feet.”
Calvin closed his eyes. Despite the fire circulating through his channels, he felt cold. A Core disciple with a master in the Unity realm… Ariadne’s family had a Unity realm ancestor of its own, but even still she admitted there was very little they could do to get her back if someone like that decided they wanted to have her. And she was implying that someone with that kind of backing had taken Gwen. Gwen, with no one to support her but mortal parents and a handful of Foundation realm friends.
A sense of hopelessness welled up inside him. What the hell was he supposed to do against those kinds of odds? Even just trying to deal with an ‘ordinary’ Core disciple was utterly beyond him. Most of them were at least in the Core realm, and no doubt had access to materials and knowledge far exceeding all but the greatest treasures offered to him by the Scroll. And they didn’t have to depend on chance and luck to get those treasures in bursts and trickles. He’d heard rumors about the incredible bounty of resources that Core disciples received each month, more wealth than was distributed to the whole of the Outer sect in a year. It would take… years… decades… centuries to catch up to someone like that.
And that didn’t even consider the disciple’s backing. The Unity realm. Calvin could barely conceive of the gap between him and someone in the Core realm. The gap between the Core realm and the Soul realm was said to be an order of magnitude wider, and a Unity realm cultivator stood head and shoulders above even such an already unfathomable existence.
In the back of his mind, fresh ink flowed across yellowed parchment. His racing heartbeat slowed and he ponderously got his rapid breathing under control. He’d been panicking, he realized in a distant, detached way. What was the point of panicking? Panic killed as surely as a blade. He knew that.
He squared his shoulders and opened his eyes. His gaze met Ariadne’s, who’d been watching him with a quizzical expression on her face. “Do you have any idea who exactly we’re talking about here?” He asked calmly. There were only so many Core disciples, after all. He didn’t know all of them, but the sect purposefully spread some amount of information about its strongest youths so lesser disciples knew who they should admire. If he had a name, or even a list of names, he’d have something to go off of. He had no real idea what he’d be able to do with that information, but hadn’t he already established that he simply knew too little to truly approach this problem?
She blinked languidly, her long lashes standing out in sharp contrast against her pale skin and elegantly framing her beautiful, hypnotic eyes. “You would confront a Core disciple for a girl you’ve known for all of a month?” she asked curiously.
That was…not a bad question. It was a pretty stupid thing to do, all things considered.
“There are thousands of prettier flowers in the Outer sect alone. I should know. I’ve introduced you to several,” Ariadne continued. “If you are so eager to find a dao companion and none of them are adequate, I would be happy to spread my search wider yet.” She smiled seductively, raising a hand to brush a strand of hair away from her face. “Or perhaps even narrow it down…”
Calvin frowned. “Gwen isn’t just some pretty flower.”
Ariadne raised one perfect eyebrow. “I’ll admit, her ability to cultivate spiritual herbs is truly impressive. I certainly understand why someone would want such a talent at their beck and call. It would be difficult to replace such an individual, especially one who is overjoyed to work without any true compensation, but it would not truly be that costly to hire a staff of capable herbalists. I believe you already employ a number of such individuals.”
Calvin was half surprised when a spark of genuine anger rose up at that comment. After all, hadn’t that been the very reason he’d initially begun cultivating Gwen’s affections? “Gwen wasn’t just some…pretty gardener!” he spat, “I thought you understood that, but perhaps I was mistaken.”
He regretted his words and tone a moment later. He still needed Ariadne’s help. That wasn’t how you spoke to someone when you needed something from them. Once again he closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. “My apologies, sister Ariadne. I let my temper get the best of me.”
She hummed softly. “No apologies needed, brother Calvin. So, I ask again… You would confront a Core disciple for a girl you’ve known for all of a month?”
This time she fell silent, waiting for an answer. Calvin considered her words carefully, turning them over in his head. She was objectively correct. It was a rather stupid decision to make. But, well. A phrase he’d found himself dwelling on time and time again in the past weeks rose to the forefront of his mind.
‘All that power and no idea how to use it.’
The Scroll was a treasure beyond anything else he’d ever heard of, and yet what was he really doing with it? Just…coasting by? Drifting through life with no real rhyme or reason?
Eventually, he just shrugged. “I guess if I had to, I probably would.”
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Derision, maybe. Perhaps laughter. Maybe she’d urge him to forget all about Gwen. That was probably objectively the right thing to do. What a proper cultivator was supposed to do. Maybe revisit the problem in a century or two if he managed to continue steadily advancing all that time.
Instead, Ariadne grinned. The expression looked almost foreign on her elegant features, too wide and joyful to be properly ladylike. But it fit her. Her smile shone like the rising sun, so bright it illuminated the whole world.
“That’s what I like to hear. Now then, I can’t say I know which Core disciple might be responsible, but…” she leaned forward, her voice gaining a sly edge, “I suspect I know who does.”
Despite his surprise, Calvin found himself leaning forward too. “Oh?”
Her bright smile turned vicious. “I do believe it would behoove us to give that worm Cao Yunfei a visit, don’t you agree?”
Calvin blinked. By the heavens he was an idiot. He really, really shouldn’t have needed Ariadne to point out the obvious. He opened his mouth to thank her, but she wasn’t done yet.
“After that…We’ll talk. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do directly, but you will have my help in this, Calvin. After all, that’s what friends do.”
And, for the first time, Calvin genuinely believed her when she called him a friend.