Tantra keeps to her routine, switching between training, socializing, and perusing the contracts. Now that she’s actually auditing them she’s been having much more fun, most of them are guard contracts, for caravans and the estate, but there are a few interesting ones amongst the pile.

  Like the one about taming a razarak. Tantra doesn’t know what Uthurn wants with an oversized death lizard, but it’s still active, so the poor cultivator assigned to this job is either very dead or about to be. Still the amount of gold is impressive, five thousand? That’s almost as much as father paid to have her placed in the Serpent’s Fang!

  She put that contract into her ‘under review’ pile for closer examination, and can never tell what tidbits you can miss with all that legalise jumbling up all the words. There are a few others, like one about finding a ‘suitable concubine’ with a ridiculous amount of details that no mortal woman can surely possess. She's going to have to talk to Yikir about that one, if only to beat some sense into him.

  There’s also a longstanding contract just for the collection of ammolite. Sure the jewels are impressive but isn’t it a bit much to have an indefinite contract over them? Especially considering how far into barbarian territory the Jewelers Caverns is.

  A lot of this is just her siblings' frivolous fancies, burning a small hole into the Jade Sole’s finances. Sure, it’s not that much in the grand scheme of things but it’s the principal of the thing! A merchant simply doesn’t throw coins at whatever they fancy, no matter how bloated with wealth they are.

  Especially not at these prices!

  Truly they have embraced decadence in the time after their father’s passing.

  She’s kind of surprised Dozen is letting them get away with it but he does seem to be absolutely swamped so maybe they're just taking advantage of the fact that they don’t need direct permission from the head to issue contracts anymore.

  At least for now.

  Once Tantra shows him these she has a feeling that’ll change.

  But no one will have to know it was her! Well, they definitely will but that’s fine, all's fair in the pursuit of saving coin.

  Tantra is extremely focused on the contract in front of her, so she doesn’t realize Alia is in the room until another stack of contracts thumps onto her desk.

  Tantra blinks, then looks up at the woman.

  “Didn’t you go to sleep?”

  “It’s morning my lady,” Alia says blandly.

  “Is it?”

  “Indeed, your internal clock must be thoroughly destroyed.”

  Tantra scrunches her brow, “and you got me more contracts?”

  “You would have asked for more anyway, I was just getting it out of the way.”

  “I wouldn’t have done that,” Tantra grumbles

  “Puh-lease, I’ve known you since you were a toddler, I’m honestly surprised it took a week for you to fully get back in the habit of neglecting your health.”

  “I’m not that bad.”

  “My lady, you’d be as skinny as Dozen if it weren’t for me. Speaking of, what would you like for breakfast?”

  “Noodles,”

  “I said breakfast.”

  “Sausage and eggs, with rice,” Tantra grumbles.

  -

  Depending on the district, navigating through Ralth is a lot like navigating through a battlefield. Narrow streets and tight corners filled to the brim with clusters of humanity, the crowd becoming an amalgamation of chaos and curses.

  It’s the lifeblood of the city, traveling through arteries and veins, spending precious coins on both the necessary and frivolous. Ralth’s prosperity comes from its propensity for trade, the northern cities depend on the routes leading to Ralth for access to the international market, and Ralth depends on those cities for resources to trade.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  It’s a middleman, and being that middleman has made it ridiculously rich, which consequently leads to a population that numbers in the millions. That number needs significantly more space than the city offers to travel comfortably, unless you were in a carriage, people usually make way for those.

  Not for cultivators though, see, Ralth isn’t like most cities, it has a Sentinel. One of the emperor's hands came down from their pedestal in Goroka to grace the world with some order. A cultivator isn’t above the law here, and any who wish to say otherwise tend to be dealt with rather swiftly. Which does place an asterisk by her plan, but she just needs proof Tikor was trying to kill her and everything will be fine.

  Definitely not, but is she just going to ignore this? No, she can’t. It wouldn’t be right.

  So, as she pushes through the crowd of people with konobō in hand, she hardens her heart, preparing for the inevitable.

  Eventually she makes it to her destination, a rather quaint alchemy shop, but one that the Jade Sol has had many dealings with due to the sheer skill of the proprietor. When she reaches the counter she rings a bell, waiting patiently as someone grumbles in the background before footsteps approach from the back.

  “What do you want?” Says a man in robes of ruby red with a white trim, there’s a token of swirling red pinned to his chest.

  “Greetings honoured alchemist,” Tantra bows, “this one was hoping you could lighten her burden. This one has plenty of specimens from the DarkWoods for your perusal.”

  He squints at her, “you’re too formal for being so young, and the DarkWoods is far, you know I’ll be able to tell if you're selling me phonies right?”

  “Of course! This one wouldn’t dare to think she could fool one such as you.”

  “Alright,” he shrugs then waves at the counter.

  Tantra smiles and pulls out a bag's worth of lifecaps, presenting them to the man with the practiced smile of a saleswoman.

  The alchemist's eye actually widens slightly at the sight, but he gives no other reaction as they stare at each other in silence.

  “Ten gold,” He says simply.

  Tantra fights back the urge to widen her smile, “please honoured one, I did not insult your intelligence with fake product, do not insult mine with such meager offerings.”

  “Fifteen”

  “Thirty”

  “Are you insane girl? I’m not buying it for thirty!”

  Tantra can’t laugh right now, it wouldn’t be proper, but it is difficult to hold it back. “Forty” She says.

  His eyebrows raise to the top of his skull, “forty?”

  “Soon that number will rise to fifty, or should I take these to someone else?”

  “No!” he says hurriedly, before collecting himself “I mean no, I’ll take it for forty.”

  Tantra extends out her hand to the man. “It’s a deal.”

  -

  A hand clamps onto her shoulder and stops her dead not three strides away from the alchemist's store. Tantra glances behind her to witness a giant of a man, easily reaching seven feet and radiating strength towering over her. He wears a robe of green with black trim to accompany a black sash around his waist, his face has one giant scar carving its way from his chin up to his eye, which is a dull brown.

  “Are you Tantra?” The man rumbles.

  “I may be, and who are you?” She says as she turns to face the man.

  He shrugs, “name’s Domor Kirtha, and I’m here to kill ya.”

  Tantra by now has noticed how the crowd has begun giving the two space, creating a little arena of cobblestone to surround them. Tantra grips her Kanabō and stares at the man, fighting back a smile.

  “I assume that’s a formal declaration for a duel?” Tantra says, projecting as much calm as she can muster.

  “Sure,” the man shrugs, “If you wanna call it that.”

  Tantra brings her club to the ground in a two handed grip and continues to stare as the crowd backs away further.

  “Ready?” He says.

  Tantra takes a deep breath, “Ready.”

  The man nods, and then there is steel bearing down on her skull. Tantra can see, intimately, the fine script carvings on the edge of his Axe. Usually they build them inside the steel, but the more complex ones can present too much of a challenge for conventional methods. What it does, Tantra doesn’t know nor care to know, all she needs is to get out of the way.

  She pushes a quarter of her Qi into her body, focused solely on the need for motion. She can feel her bones ache and muscles strain with the amount she’s forcing into her body, but she successfully dodges ten paces to the left.

  The man looks at the small crater he’s made of the cobblestone, then turns his head to look at her.

  “Actually managed to dodge that? Impressive, for one of your cultivation”

  “Thanks,” Tantra says blandly

  He grunts before shouldering his axe, and Tantra steadies her club in front of her.

  He just stares, not moving an inch as he scratches his belly with one hand.

  Tantra scrunches her brow, but then she smells something.

  Like stone crumbling into dust, and it’s right beneath her.

  Confused, she looks down.

  A spike of jagged contours, about the size of her fist.

  Lodged right into her guts.

  That’s not good.

  “Should’ve worked on your Qi senses,” the man shakes his head, “that’s a big weakness to exploit.”

  She goes to say something, perhaps a retort, but the axe is already in motion, aimed straight at her neck.

  Tantra brings up her Kanabō, and there is the clang of metal.

  Only she doesn’t feel any weight on her weapon.

  “Well,” says the vibrating blade, “this isn’t very fair, now is it?”