The end of Ki'el's weed pick-ing as-sign-ment marked the last of her tasks for the day, ac-cord-ing to Futi, leav-ing Ki'el un-cer-tain as to where her friends--or fam-i-ly, were now. Futi was will-ing to di-rect her to Mian, as he was in fact prepar-ing for the evening meal along with oth-er kitchen staff, but said lit-tle more about Xam ex-cept that she was away.

  Ki'el had seen the small kitchen on the way in, not-ing that it seemed to have been lived in, and so she was un-sur-prised to find that the air was charged when she looked. Mian was do-ing lit-tle at the mo-ment, ob-serv-ing and stir-ring a pot, while an-oth-er man, one with shoul-der-length black hair that looked a bit too wild, was in-tent-ly fo-cus-ing on chop-ping veg-eta-bles. He glanced up at the door when Ki'el ap-peared, but did not dis-tract him-self fur-ther.

  "Ki'el." Mian's voice was warm when he glanced up and no-ticed her. "I hope you're hav-ing a bet-ter day than me so far."

  "Noth-ing to com-plain about," Ki'el said, though it wasn't quite true. She glanced at the oth-er cook. "Did any-thing bad hap-pen?"

  Ki'el not-ed the oth-er cook giv-ing Mian a look, but nei-ther man dwelled on it. "Only peo-ple who don't want my help," he said. "Es-pe-cial-ly when I first ar-rive. There's not much I can do ex-cept try to prove my-self, but even so, one nev-er came around." He checked back on the pot he was stir-ring, then set the la-dle aside. "There are... strong per-son-al-i-ties here."

  "You step on land-mines," the oth-er cook said, naked dis-trust in his voice. "I don't know if you're just stu-pid or some-thing worse, but the way you talk will get you in-tro trou-ble no mat-ter where you go."

  Mian gave Ki'el a shrug, and then turned back. "Should I start the next--"

  "No." The cook paused his chop-ping for a mo-ment. "Yes. Fill a pan with wa-ter and get it heat-ing. Not the clos-er well, the clean one."

  Mian quick-ly stirred the pot again be-fore set-ting the ladle aside and grab-bing an-oth-er lar-gish pot. Ki'el stood aside and fol-lowed him as he be-gan quick-walk-ing down the hill. "I told him I wasn't like the peo-ple who didn't want to work," Mian said once they were a lit-tle ways away. "I know that it's a thing around here. I sup-pose I know that it's a fool-ish thing to say, but I'm also not sure how to say it bet-ter."

  "He might not wish to work," Ki'el said, though she could also ad-mit she didn't un-der-stand. "But he also does not wish to be re-placed."

  "I sup-pose every-one around here finds their place. It's hard for me to un-der-stand their point of view, though."

  Ki'el con-sid-ered it, as they walked a lit-tle ways into the for-est, where a small cir-cu-lar well with a long-han-dle pump on top sat, sur-round-ed by a small stone-brick cir-cle. Mian pumped the han-dle a cou-ple times, and al-though the wa-ter that first came out ap-peared clear, he con-tin-ued for an-oth-er mo-ment be-fore fill-ing the pot.

  "I sup-pose we did pay a lot to come here," Mian said, as he bal-anced the pot with still pump-ing the han-dle. "It's hard to keep that in mind, since it was Alas-si--Sobon's mon-ey."

  Ki'el watched him bal-ance the pot un-til it was full, then turn and be-gin walk-ing, de-lay-ing a mo-ment too long and need-ing to hur-ry to catch up. What Mian said wasn't wrong, but it also didn't quite an-swer it for her, ei-ther. "This place is an op-por-tu-ni-ty to do great things. I do not see why it would be dif-fi-cult to ac-cept work-ing for that."

  "Is it?" Mian's voice sound-ed a lit-tle dis-tant, as they came back in view of the build-ing. "Couldn't she have taught us bet-ter? Taught us more?"

  Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed, want-i-ng to speak of the aug-ment that Sobon had left be-hind with her, but rec-og-niz-ing as they drew clos-er that oth-ers might be lis-ten-ing. "She didn't think so."

  "And yet a few words from her are worth a thou-sand from some-one else. You know it's true." Mian straight-ened as they came through the front door, and by the time he had put the pot on the stove and got-ten back into stir-ring the oth-er, any sign of the in-tro-spec-tive mood he'd had van-ished.

  Ki'el watched for a minute more, but turned away when she heard voic-es com-ing from out-side.

  She was sur-prised to find, out-side, sev-er-al mem-bers of the Less-er House, ones that had not been there even mo-ments be-fore, gath-ered around an-oth-er, a young man or an-drog-y-nous woman with the bright-est red hair that Ki'el had ever seen. Al-though there was pal-pa-ble re-sent-ment and angst in the air, it was un-clear why, and the sit-u-a-tion made no sense to Ki'el, see-ing it from the out-side. From what she could tell, they were not far apart in their cul-ti-va-tion, and while she would not be sur-prised if they were far apart in sta-tus, as most of the rest of them looked clear-ly Djang, she could not imag-ine what must have tran-spired for that to mat-ter.

  When she felt one of the sur-round-ing mem-bers of the Less-er House reach out to the red-haired per-son, there was some-thing so dirty about their qi that Ki'el un-con-scious-ly gave a shout of protest, draw-ing at-ten-tion that she im-me-di-ate-ly knew she should not have drawn.

  "A new one?" The clos-est man to Ki'el twitched slight-ly as he pushed his qi into an ar-ti-fact bracelet, and Ki'el could tell im-me-di-ate-ly that it linked him to the oth-ers in some way, as the group of eight sud-den-ly moved as though with a sin-gle mind, leap-ing through the air un-til they sur-round-ed her much like they had sur-round-ed the red haired one. She felt her qi surge pro-tec-tive-ly with-in her... but it was very lit-tle com-pared to what was sud-den-ly around her. "What is it with this sect," the man com-plained, sneer-ing down at Ki'el, "ac-cept-ing half-breeds and for-eign trash, just for, what? A lit-tle mon-ey? Pa-thet-ic of them."

  "If they would just ac-cept more of our fam-i-ly's do-na-tions, they wouldn't need such piti-ful things," one of the oth-ers agreed, and Ki'el glanced to find her sneer-ing.

  Ki'el im-me-di-ate-ly be-gan push-ing on her Right-eous Cy-cle, feed-ing the pure aether that came from it into her spir-it. It had al-ways helped her to re-sist ef-fects from out-side qi... and it did, to-day, much like it had when she was cap-tured and abused by pi-rates, tru-ly wicked crea-tures that had in-tend-ed to break her spir-it and sell her into slav-ery. But there was a dif-fer-ence, here. When she re-sist-ed the qi pres-sure that was be-ing pressed into her, the ones around here were not con-fused.

  In-stead, the pres-sure dou-bled, and Ki'el had to close her eyes, fo-cus-ing all of her spir-it on first one, then a sec-ond of her Right Hand Aether rings, feed-ing the back, know-ing, know-ing that whether or not she suc-cumbed to the hos-tile aether that poured in from all around her meant some-thing sig-nif-i-cant to her.

  When the qi in-ten-si-ty around her dou-bled again, for the first time, those rings be-gan to fail her. They had felt like they were the only air she could breathe when she was tor-tured--beat-en, burned, elec-tro-cut-ed. But these peo-ple, by only un-veil-ing their spir-its, threat-ened to do worse.

  { Do you wish for ad-vice? }

  Ki'el al-most lost con-cen-tra-tion, but signaled des-per-ate as-sent to the thing in her mind.

  In-stead of giv-ing words of ad-vice, the thing in her mind brought her back to the two riv-er stones, one push-ing end-less-ly on the world around it, and one drink-ing end-less-ly from it. And af-ter only a mo-ment, when Ki'el thought she grasped what was be-ing said, the aug-ment flashed just a mo-ment of im-age in her mind, of four stones push-ing, and four stones pulling, cre-at-ing a tear-ing cur-rent, one that felt in-ex-orable, un-ques-tion-able. Un-con-quer-able.

  Ki'el's eyes flew open as she had that thought, and she looked, tru-ly looked at the qi around her. Be-cause she had felt that all of them were op-press-ing her, she had thought that all of them were do-ing the same things, but as soon as she un-der-stood that it was a two-part ef-fect, sud-den-ly her de-fens-es did not feel cor-rect. Be-cause she did need to push aether into her body to re-sist that which was push-ing into her, but if she pushed aether into the parts of her body where en-er-gy was be-ing tak-en away, then that was wast-ed.

  Al-though it took her more than a mo-ment to change the way she pushed her aether into her body's spir-it, the dif-fer-ence was ob-vi-ous. She still strug-gled against the weight of what was press-ing in on her, but sud-den-ly, she was twice as strong against it, per-haps more.

  "Oh, the lit-tle for-eign bitch knows a trick or two? I'd say it's im-pres-sive in-ter-nal qi con-trol, but I'm not ever go-ing to be im-pressed by trash, no mat-ter how well trained it is." The one who was in the lead, Ki'el now saw, was not press-ing hard on his own spir-it, and looked pris-tine and un-con-cerned with the world, as though noth-ing that had oc-curred was even note-wor-thy. But Ki'el felt his in-ter-nal qi flex, and he stepped for-ward, and Ki'el re-al-ized with com-plete shock a mo-ment be-fore it hap-pened that he was in-tend-ing to strike her.

  And then the heel of the man's hand smashed into her nose, and she fell back-wards, stunned mo-men-tar-i-ly out of her fo-cus.

  Ki'el could feel some-thing like whis-pers in the dark in the mo-ment when she was not flush-ing out her spir-it, but as soon as she put pres-sure on the rings again, those whis-pers sud-den-ly felt dis-tant, im-per-son-al. She got over her shock in only a mo-ment, and leaped to her feet, balling her fists and look-ing straight at the man who had so ca-su-al-ly struck her, al-ready ques-tion-ing in her mind whether the man's un-pro-voked at-tack would jus-ti-fy at-tack-ing him. She want-ed it to be so sim-ple, but she sus-pect-ed it was not.

  Even so, it was as-ton-ish-ing that the man saw both her re-sis-tance and re-straint and sim-ply scoffed at her.

  "As al-ways with for-eign trash," he said, "weak and in-com-pe-tent. Do you not have any fire in your spir-it at all? I won-der how your an-ces-tors sur-vived their first con-tact with the Djang. Such a weak thing is not even wor-thy to be a ser-vant; you are mere-ly meat."

  Ki'el suf-fered the in-dig-ni-ties, her mind eas-i-ly able to fo-cus on words, and was just bare-ly, bare-ly able to keep more than that in her mind, thanks to the flow of Right-eous Aether with-in her. With-out ques-tion, this taunt-ing was all some kind of trap, and she dared not--

  "At least she's not like that oth-er trash," one of the women sur-round-ing her chuck-led. "We know ex-act-ly how that meat sur-vived--by serv-ing her bet-ters on her knees and back."

  Ki'el felt a trick-le of chill hor-ror go through her as she un-der-stood what the woman was say-ing, but the thought did not have a chance to ma-ture in her mind be-fore there was a flash of red, and the woman was sud-den-ly buried un-der a red smear of light, col-laps-ing to her knees. And Ki'el, un-cer-tain but al-ready primed to act, shift-ed im-me-di-ate-ly to cov-er the red-haired per-son, as two of the oth-ers sur-round-ing her sud-den-ly moved to at-tack.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  It took both aether and a touch of her qi for Ki'el to move quick-ly enough to catch a full-strength kick that was aimed at the red haired one with her hands, al-though the force of it pushed her back-wards into where they were fight-ing with the woman with poi-soned words, and all three of them tum-bled to the ground. Ki'el rolled with it, notic-ing an-oth-er kick from a dif-fer-ent man, and on in-stinct, flashed an im-age at the red haired one with her in-tent--and the red haired one re-spond-ed, sud-den-ly pick-ing up the woman they were fight-ing and lift-ing them straight into the kick, so that it land-ed on her back in-stead.

  It was in that mo-ment, at that an-gle, that Ki'el un-der-stood that the red haired per-son had more than sim-ply red hair on their head, but also point-ed red ears like an an-i-mal, though she was sure they had not been there be-fore. But she wiped the thought from her mind as some-one else near-by bent down, in-tend-ing to punch Ki'el in the head. She punched back, not aim-ing for his face, but strik-ing his arm near the el-bow to stop the blow from land-ing. It was some-thing she had prac-ticed a lit-tle with Mian, us-ing the staff form of her Aether Sword, but rarely with her hands.

  Still, her blow land-ed, and al-though the man's fist con-tin-ued for-ward, it de-flect-ed to the side, not strik-ing her. Be-side her, the red haired per-son snarled and clawed at the woman's face, and Ki'el felt a surge of qi from in-side them, and so she reached down and hauled the red haired one to their feet, pulling them away be-fore they could do some-thing rash. She felt them at first re-spond bad-ly to the con-tact, and once she pulled them to their feet, the red haired one start-ed to round on her, but Ki'el pushed a sense of peace with her in-tent, which at least made them pause.

  "Fuck-ing mon-ster! As-sault! As-sault!" The man who had start-ed every-thing, nat-u-ral-ly, was the first one to cry out as though a crime had been com-mit-ted, and Ki'el sensed a pulse of qi from his bracelet ar-ti-fact, and mo-ments lat-er all of his com-pan-ions had shift-ed from fu-ri-ous to look-ing scared. "Da Chi-an has gone fer-al! Stop her! Kill her!"

  This only caused Chi-an to bris-tle fur-ther, but Ki'el put a hand on their shoul-der, push-ing right-eous aether into them, and al-though there was a mo-ment of con-fu-sion, sud-den-ly they round-ed on Ki'el, a ter-ri-bly con-fused look on their face.

  "What... what have I...?" Da Chi-an's voice was sud-den-ly scared, too, and Ki'el--in part on in-stinct, and in part out of spite for the ob-vi-ous pro-duc-tion that the at-tack-ers were putting on, pulled them into a pro-tec-tive hug, flood-ing their spir-it and her own with pure right-hand aether.

  It only took a mo-ment for the red haired one's pound-ing heart to qui-et, and then an-oth-er mo-ment be-fore they be-gan shak-ing and cry-ing, mak-ing Ki'el feel a lit-tle awk-ward to stand there hold-ing them, al-though on a cer-tain lev-el, it did not feel wrong, ex-act-ly.

  It was thanks to this that when two Out-er Dis-ci-ples of the sect dropped from nowhere into the clear-ing, the only one look-ing an-gry was the man who had start-ed every-thing, al-though Ki'el her-self felt that it was ob-vi-ous just how much his com-pan-ions were also fak-ing their up-set, ex-cept for the one who now bore sev-er-al scratch-es across her face.

  "Al-right, ju-nior Broth-ers and Sis-ters, who start-ed this?" The man who spoke had a met-al staff, one with a ring hov-er-ing near each end of it, sev-er-al small-er rings dan-gling freely from those. Al-though his eyes swept over the crowd--both those that had been in-volved, and the grow-ing group of peo-ple around the edges who had not, his cold eyes set-tled on Ki'el and Da Chi-an with a look that was also de-mean-ing.

  "She did!" The man who had start-ed every-thing snarled, point-ing at Da Chain. "Like I told you she would! She struck my friend--"

  "You struck me first," Ki'el said, and though it wasn't quite true, spoke up in the awk-ward still-ness. "Da Chi-an was pro-tect-ing me."

  "You LIE!" The man's fury ex-plod-ed from him with a qi wave that might have been im-pres-sive some-where else in the world. "This for-eign--" he caught him-self just in time, smooth-ing over his spir-it rough-ly. "This ju-nior sis-ter was un-fa-mil-iar with how things worked here, and I was pro-vid-ing guid-ance."

  "You called my an-ces-tors whores that were no bet-ter than meat," Ki'el said, keep-ing her spir-it lev-el and un-fla-vored, let-ting the truth of what she said stand out. Even so, she could not help re-fram-ing what had hap-pened just a lit-tle. "Even then, no one struck you un-til af-ter you struck me."

  "You daugh-ter of a WHORE!" the man ex-plod-ed, and a lance of qi from some ar-ti-fact she had not no-ticed leaped out at her, but the sec-ond Out-er Dis-ci-ple, who had not yet ated, sim-ply flicked a hand up and scat-tered it in midair as though it were a puff of smoke.

  "Xan Bu," the Out-er Dis-ci-ple's words were cold, "I had heard from sev-er-al peo-ple that you were a tal-ent-ed ma-nip-u-la-tor, but it seems that ac-cu-sa-tion was base-less. Even an in-fant could look at this sit-u-a-tion and tell that you were in the wrong." She turned and glared at the oth-er Out-er Dis-ci-ple, who sim-ply main-tained a sto-ic fa-cade, hav-ing said and done noth-ing. "But be-yond that, strik-ing an-oth-er dis-ci-ple, even a mem-ber of the Less-er House, while an Out-er Dis-ci-ple is here? It seems that you, above all oth-ers, are un-fa-mil-iar with how things work here. Per-haps you should re-ceive guid-ance in turn?"

  Xan Bu clenched every mus-cle in his body like his rage would some-how open a hid-den well-spring of qi deep with-in him, but noth-ing surged forth, and af-ter a mo-ment, the man forced him-self to stand straight. "I... this dis-ci-ple may have been mis-tak-en."

  The sec-ond Out-er Dis-ci-ple turned to look at Ki'el, who was there hold-ing Da Chi-an against her. "You, dis-ci-ple. As the ag-griev-ed, would you care to pro-vide guid-ance to your fel-low dis-ci-ple?" There was no ques-tion-ing the in-tent be-hind the woman's words, but Ki'el con-tin-ued to cir-cu-late right-eous aether through her, and through Da Chi-an, and the words struck her very dif-fer-ent-ly, be-cause her spir-it was not boil-ing over with ha-tred, was not con-sumed by the fact that she had been at-tacked.

  And she had. And she un-der-stood that. But the more that she pushed aether into her spir-it, the more she seemed to catch flick-ers of the out-side world that she had not caught be-fore. And she thought, as she stood there, that the whis-pers she had heard when she was at-tacked were still hang-ing around Xan Bu, but they were not point-ed at her, or any-one else, but at the man him-self. And Ki'el had a mo-ment in which she won-dered if that had al-ways been the case.

  And so she re-leased Da Chi-an and moved to-wards the man, watch-ing as every-one else tensed, no doubt ex-pect-ing her to strike him in the face. And in-stead she moved around the man in a slow cir-cle, study-ing his qi, and more and more cer-tain as she did that the same barbs that had threat-ened to tear into her spir-it were tor-tur-ing him even now.

  That was good, in a way. Ki'el felt a cer-tain jus-tice know-ing the he suf-fered af-ter hurt-ing her. But she also could not help think-ing that the barbs had per-haps been there long be-fore, and had tor-tured him un-til he broke, much like he, and the pi-rates that Sobon had saved her from, had wished to break her. So af-ter walk-ing one full cir-cle around him, she walked a sec-ond time, this time look-ing as much at his flesh as she did his spir-it.

  It was dif-fi-cult to tell what his his-to-ry was, ex-cept that the clothes that he wore were nei-ther the rich-est silks Ki'el had seen--and she was sure she had not seen tru-ly fine silk, even in the store in the city that Sobon had tak-en her to--nor were they the rough cloth of work-ing clothes. They were fine clothes, but they had been dirt-ied and cleaned, and there were nicks and cuts, ev-i-dence of his work at the Sect. His hair was black and cut short, in what might have been a dig-ni-fied style if it had been bet-ter done and his hair prop-er-ly cared for; his face had re-cent-ly been shaved clean but had re-grown more than enough to show. His pos-ture con-tin-ued to show no re-morse and no con-fu-sion, only a com-bat-ive in-tent that could not be ig-nored or de-nied.

  And his eyes, Ki'el thought, showed an ab-solute and com-plete ded-i-ca-tion. He be-lieved he knew some-thing to the depths of his soul. What that was, Ki'el could not guess. All that she knew was that ded-i-ca-tion was not to-wards his qi, was not to-wards grow-ing stronger.

  So when she had com-plet-ed her walk, she turned to look into his face, and said ex-act-ly that. "Broth-er Xan Bu," she said, and the man flinched, per-haps think-ing that Ki'el would shame him be-fore at-tack-ing. "I be-lieve that you are ful-ly ded-i-cat-ed in your spir-it to some-thing, and that some-thing is not grow-ing stronger. I be-lieve that if you wish to suc-ceed in this place, you should show as much ded-i-ca-tion to your qi as you show to... what-ev-er de-mon it is in-side of you that you give con-trol. And I be-lieve that if you gave that ded-i-ca-tion to your qi in-stead, you would no longer be con-fined to the Less-er House." Al-though she still felt a deep de-sire to still strike at him, she turned away, let-ting the act of de-fi-ance be her part-ing blow. "That is my guid-ance."

  Ki'el was three steps away when some-one struck her full in the back.

  She did not un-der-stand, as she fell, and she would not un-der-stand lat-er. She tried to get up, or roll onto her back, but all she was met with was pain. It did not last; she felt a pair of hands lift-ing her al-most im-me-di-ate-ly, hands that were re-mark-ably gen-tle, and some-how, in the blur of mo-tion that fol-lowed, there was no fur-ther pain.

  Ki'el had nev-er ceased to press her right-eous aether into her spir-it, and al-though she closed her eyes for a part of the trip, and al-though the world out-side of her body be-came in-creas-ing-ly con-fused as some-thing like shock set in, she could tell that the trip was fair-ly short, and she was brought into a build-ing and laid in a bed. And a man she had not met was quick-ly there, and her shirt was lift-ed, and very pow-er-ful med-ical qi pressed into a wound on her back that she be-came aware was di-rect-ly in her spine.

  She felt some-thing shift, there, and sud-den-ly, the pain was much less.

  "It was in time," a voice said near-by. "She will re-cov-er her full strength, and soon. Thank you for your swift ac-tions, sis-ter."

  "Thank you, Se-nior Broth-er."

  "And you... don't move yet. You can stop stop feed-ing qi into your spir-it; I as-sure you, you will be fine."

  So Ki'el let go of her Right-eous Cy-cles, feel-ing sud-den-ly faint. She was sure, af-ter every-thing she had just en-dured, that she had put too much aether into her spir-it, though she was not sure what that meant, or what she should have done dif-fer-ent-ly. Sobon had spo-ken of aether and qi as dif-fer-ent... no, she would not know what would be right or wrong even if she had been us-ing qi to pro-tect her-self. She took sev-er-al steady-ing breaths, find-ing that her mouth felt very dry, then asked, "You are a heal-er for the sect?"

  "Yes, we have nev-er met. You may call me Se-nior Broth-er Yong." The man moved to where Ki'el could see him and squat-ted down, to be more on her lev-el. "The heal-ing I have used on you can only be used on fresh wounds, but it should re-cov-er you com-plete-ly. That is good; a wound to your spine would oth-er-wise be very se-ri-ous in-deed. What hap-pened to you?"

  Ki'el worked her dry mouth a mo-ment, but there was no sali-va to wet it. Al-though the pain was eas-ing, be-tween it and lay-ing on her chest, she found her-self only able to speak a few words at a time. Fi-nal-ly, she just said, "Struck... from be-hind by... an... an-oth-er mem-ber... of the Less-er House. We were... ar-gu-ing."

  "Some-one struck you from be-hind, while a Dis-ci-ple was watch-ing?" Yong all but laughed out loud, shak-ing his head wist-ful-ly. "That man won't be stay-ing longer in the Sect, that is for cer-tain."

  "He had... friends."

  "Many peo-ple think they have friends, un-til those 'friends' dis-cov-er what the true cost of loy-al-ty will be. I re-mem-ber when I was in the Less-er House..." The man looked up at the ceil-ing, but went silent in-stead of con-tin-u-ing. Then, af-ter a mo-ment, "We thought that sev-er-al peo-ple had great pow-er be-cause they could gath-er al-lies, like mind-ed peo-ple. But in truth, they were just des-per-ate peo-ple band-ing to-geth-er. Only one of those peo-ple ever rose to join the Sect, and that was be-cause he was a hard work-er. In truth, the ones who re-main in the Less-er House for long get so des-per-ate that they will latch on to any-one who they think is of a sim-i-lar spir-it--all be-cause they wish to rise. But when that at-tach-ment would have them fall along-side some-one else..." He stood, his head get-ting to where Ki'el could not quite see him com-fort-ably any-more. "It is just as nat-ur-al for them to say, 'I was nev-er one of your peo-ple.' It seems cold, but it is all a part of the same des-per-ate cow-ardice."

  Ki'el didn't say more, and Broth-er Yong moved away with-out fur-ther com-ment. Ki'el found that she could not rest or sleep for a long time, and she thought about Xan Bu and des-per-ate peo-ple, but all that she could think was that she was glad her spir-it had not been bro-ken. She did not tru-ly want to save Xan Bu, and had not re-al-ly de-sired to save him when she chose not to strike back at him. She was not even sure that there was any pity in-side of her for him, not only be-cause he struck at her, but be-cause he had struck at Da Chi-an. But she was cer-tain that if she had been bro-ken, she would also have be-come cru-el, and she was glad that had not hap-pened.

  Some-where over the next hour or two, as she thought about these things, the stress of the evening caught up with her, and Ki'el fi-nal-ly fell asleep.