Chapter 19
Somehow Alex wasn’t surprised to find Linnea’s hand eagerly grasping his own.
She turned to gaze up at him with a tenderness in her eyes that humbled him, knowing she was daring this delve for his sake as much as any desire to make her fortune.
What surprised him was how quickly Ya Ling, now wearing a form-fitting hauberk of fine steel scales, had claimed his right wrist, flashing a rueful smile of her own that made it clear that whatever reservations she might still have, she wasn’t going to hold back when it came to claiming what she truly desired.
Alex swallowed, more than a bit humbled by the intensity of her regard as a slight rosy cast came over her cheeks that her half-helm did nothing to hide. But all she said after Kuaisu claimed her other hand was, “Come on, let’s jump through.”
As one, they approached the shimmering darkness, and an eyeblink later, Alex found himself walking across a vast tiled courtyard that stretched out in the distance until it visibly dipped into the starry night sky.
“Look, over there! I’ll bet there’s one for each season!” Linnea pointed toward the four towering portals just a hundred yards or so ahead that shimmered and glittered with different-colored light that somehow brought to mind walking through a woodland glade in each of the different seasons.
Lao Tie beamed at them all. “Everyone accounted for? Excellent! No need to worry about any danger in this area. As far as anyone can tell, it’s free of all inhabitants, save for the forest on the far side.”
Ya Ling blinked at this. “Far side?”
Lao Tie nodded. “Yes. This entry chamber is actually a massive sphere in a starry void, with the world’s weight always pressing down on us, so we never fall off.
Fascinating, no? If you were to pick any direction and just start walking, you would eventually end up right where you started.
Save for the forest, of course. But so long as you don’t enter it, you have nothing to fear in what is effectively the delve entrance hall.
Our headmaster himself has verified it.”
Linnea frowned, even as Lao Tie’s companions nodded as if it were all common sense. “But wait, what’s so special about the forest?”
Kuaisu snorted. “What’s special about it is you don’t go in it. Simple as that.”
Ya Ling frowned. “And why is that?”
“Because no one who’s entered has ever been heard from again.”
Alex froze at those words. “Wait, seriously? You have a forest so perilous that it has a zero percent survival rate, and we’re just casually walking through this area without a care in the world?”
Wu Xien chuckled as he rapped the blade of his impressive-looking guandao.
“It’s nothing to worry about, boy. In all the centuries our city’s plumbed the depths of these rifts, we’ve never had trouble from those woods that didn’t start with some fool thinking he’d somehow find his fortune within.
And for all we know, they did! They just never bothered coming out and telling us about it. ”
Nodding, Tang adjusted a strap on his armor, Kuaisu holding his naginata while he did so.
“Wu Xien’s right. You have nothing to worry about, any more than you need to fear the lip of the basin, so long as you don’t go leaping off with a mortal’s physique.
And countless farmers ascend the caldera escarpment with their crops, every week.
So if they can face that hazard as a simple part of their job, we can take comfort in having the common sense not to jump off the metaphoric ledge in here. ”
Lao Tie flashed them all a reassuring smile.
“Come, my friends. With Wanshi’s hour so late, hesitation suits us poorly.
As I’m sure our inspirational Ruidian friend agrees,” he said with a pointed look Alex’s way.
“Now come, to the rightmost gate sparkling with the brilliant luster of snow. Let’s forge ourselves a tale worthy of the bards themselves! ”
“Agreed,” Alex dipped his head to the wujen’s obvious approval before his own smile hardened, forcing himself to fully appreciate both the peril and opportunity now before them, realizing that there were certain things he should have clarified from the start, had not his own chagrin regarding recently avoided tragedy and the memory of Nili’s disapproving glare not compelled him to do all he could to get out of there and leap right into a hero’s journey.
And all without doing anything to protect his flank, both literal and metaphoric.
“And to answer your earlier question, Wu Xien, a gestalt is a state that Ruidians who work really well together can sometimes embrace. It allows them to fight far more efficiently than they otherwise might. And though it is somewhat different when used by cultivators, I’m happy to say that it could gift us all with an unparalleled sense of the battlefield where all of us can sense where we are in relation to one another, and just how imperiled any one of us might be. ”
Wu Xien looked suitably impressed. “Remarkable.” He turned to his obvious leader. “Have you ever heard of such a thing, Lao Tie?”
“No, I have not.” He gave Alex a nod of genuine respect. “I sense that our new friend has chosen to share a confidence with us that we, of course, shall treasure and keep safely between ourselves.”
Kuaisu chuckled. “Like the boy said. What happens in a delve stays in that delve. And I can’t tell you how damned useful it would be to have a sense of where all of you are in relation to myself, if such a thing were truly possible.”
Lao Tie nodded solemnly. “Indeed. Such a boon would make young Alex a treasured member of any group that dared the deeps, regardless of his personal martial prowess.”
“Well, I’d be more than happy to form a party with all of you.
” Alex did his best to ignore Linnea’s excited squeal, Rachel’s awed look, and Ya Ling’s obvious hesitation that was such an odd mixture of fear and adoration both.
“But as I’m sure you can imagine, to share such an intimate gift requires a certain degree of familiarity.
Of trust. And seeing as we have just met…
let’s just say I have a good feeling about this delve.
So I’m willing to make an exception. All I ask is for your Cultivator’s Oaths that you all have no intentions of deliberately harming a fellow party member during or after our delve, and I assure you all that I feel the same. ”
The easygoing cheer of Alex’s new acquaintances instantly hardened with a curious intensity.
Alex could sense both Linnea’s and Ya Ling’s sudden spikes of alarm, and an odd mixture of both dread and excitement even as Alex’s heart started to pound, a breeze he and Ya Ling alone felt rustling their hair as they exchanged intent glances.
And he found it so easy to slip into the memory of that storm that had catalyzed such a profound breakthrough, just the night before.
Yet he held his fangtian ji at rest, very deliberately taking no defensive guard at all, the memory of misunderstandings and mutual ire coming so close to tragedy so narrowly avoided still fresh in his mind.
“Alex! What do we do?” Linnea hissed.
And it said something about just how close they had become that Alex had only to ease the barrier he had put up in his own mind.
For a single blink…
And the two of them were one, once more.
Sharing breaths and awareness.
Fire and fangtian ji more than ready to take on all foes.
Kuaisu, clearly no fool, snorted. “At least we know he’s not bluffing or playing us for suckers.”
Wu Xien scowled. “And how exactly do we know that?”
“Because he and his Ruidian wife are already moving and thinking as one.” She smirked.
“Look at the shared expressions on their faces. The girl’s now wearing his confident know-it-all smile, and he’s now tilting his head like the redhead does.
And the looks on their faces as they both turn to regard me—her with a mortal’s Quickness and he holding back his true power.
They are like mirror images of each other, and she is now moving or at least thinking far faster than she had been, just seconds ago. ”
Tang snorted. “Never realized Ruidians had such an ace up their sleeve.”
Kuaisu shrugged. “Not that surprising. We all know how much better delving groups with close Ruidian allies tend to fare on average, and our friends never have a good explanation as to why. No doubt they all take oaths of secrecy while enjoying all sorts of boons alien to the paths of cultivation, but clearly not so strange for our most valued neighbors.”
“Good thing we can embrace our Fire as fast as we can think it when we are one, no matter how slow our vessel.” Alex grinned at the thought that was, after all, his own.
Even if he was simultaneously humbled, sensing how fiercely Linnea adored him already, thoughts of beautiful children and domestic bliss now shining as brightly upon his shared mind as his own fierce hot joy in crushing his foes in the crucible of combat and his desire to ascend just as far and as fast as he could.
Ya Ling’s eyes widened with what almost seemed dismay.
Whether it was because of how deeply Alex and Linnea were communing, fearing that she couldn’t hope to measure up (“And it’s true, but we can still love her, my heart!
”) or because a complete stranger, albeit a clearly talented Silver-tier speed specialist, one of the true elites of this city, who was no doubt trained to instantly size up any potential combat dynamic or social situation, had spotted it first, he (they) couldn’t be sure.