Chang-li stood over the defeated cultivators. The woman knelt, cradling her wounded arm and weeping angry tears. Now that the fight was over, he felt a small burst of shame and worry. They'd been no match for him, and though they'd started the fight, he could perhaps have avoided it.

As the Brotherhood man emerged from the repository, hesitantly at first, then hurrying as he saw Chang-li and Joshi victorious, he demanded, "Ask where my brothers are."

The woman cultivator spat. "They're with the sect, and, you may have defeated us, but you won't defeat Young Master Naha or my father."

Chang-li held up a hand. "We didn't ask for this fight," he said mildly. "We only came to regain lux for our travels. We were just passing through."

"And that's why you sent spies to look over the books?" the woman demanded. "Magistrate Noor told us you were coming out from Vardin City to audit us. She said that the new governor of Riceflower has a sect in his back pocket and that he is raising taxes for all the outlying villages, because he knows we can't stand up to the guard and cultivators both."

Chang-li felt like he'd been struck over the head. It took him a second to recover enough to say, "Wait, what?"

The woman grimaced. The man he had wounded was now lying on the ground, moaning in pain. Joshi's nearby opponent was crouched on the ground, making no effort to stand.

The Bloodflame Toxin was taking deeper root in the woman's body. He could hear the pain in her voice as she spoke. "You will torture the information out of us?"

"I won't dignify that with an answer."

"You are lapdogs of the governor."

"No, we're not," Chang-li insisted. "Like I said, we're just passing through. I promised to give aid to these Brotherhood men, though," he added, as the brother made a low muttering noise reminding Chang-li he was there. "They're under my protection, and if your people have taken them, there will be trouble."

"We are no lackeys of the governor or any other imperial official," Joshi told the woman. "You've been used by the magistrate as a pawn in her schemes."

The woman looked up angrily. "You'd say that, wouldn't you?"

Now Chang-li was annoyed. All he'd wanted to do was to continue his journey. This was taking time he didn't want to spend. But he had told the Brotherhood men to look around, so that made him responsible now if they'd gotten captured. He checked the Bloodflame Toxin and added a little green to the weave, diluting the poison. It must be pretty painful by now, but it wouldn't be deadly. And if he could use it to bring an end to this situation without more violence, he would.

"I can heal that wound," he told the woman, "right now, easily. Just help me get the brothers back. I'll have them sent back downriver and explain this was all a big mistake."

"Magistrate Noor won't believe that."

"Will you at least tell me who you are?" he asked.

The woman looked up, defiant. "I am Young Master Me Shar, daughter of the Deepwater Sect. My father will avenge me."

"I don't recognize your colors," Chang-li noted. "Are you not from around here?"

"This is our home where we've been born and lived all our lives," the woman said. Then understanding flashed across her face, and she laughed. "You're the Young Master of a grand sect. I suppose you only deal with the likes of us through intermediaries. No, you won't have seen us at any tower culls or that big to-do they had at the Riceflower. We're not that sort of sect."

The Brotherhood man cleared his throat. "Um, Young Master Wu, they're a country sect. It's how the rural places keep track of those who can cultivate. They'll have provisional licenses from the governor or maybe just the magistrate, and if they work hard enough, they can gain their way to the Peak of Mental Refinement like this woman here, though I haven't heard it happening often. The magistrate has a certain number of cultivation licenses she's allowed to hand out," he explained.

Me Shar grimaced. "Thanks to the scheme she's got, she's given us three times as many licenses as she's actually permitted. Part of the lux we skim off raises people up to the Peak of Bodily Refinement. Then we can hunt stray lux-tainted creatures and harvest them without having to send for provincial guards or fancy cultivators like you. It's not much, but we eke out a living."

Chang-li didn't quite follow how that made sense, but he nodded. "This is getting old. I'll withdraw my curse and take you back to your people, but I want mine back in exchange," he said. "Then we're gone. I don't know how strongly I can emphasize we don't care about your scheme."

Joshi folded his arms across his broad chest. "If you are scamming the emperor and stealing his lux, I approve," he said. "Give us our people, and we will be gone."

The rural cultivators looked up in shock. "Think he's telling the truth, Me Shar?" the man with Bloodflame Toxin in his wounds choked out. "By heavens, tell them yes, anything to be rid of this pain."

"Very well." Me Shar seemed to sink in on herself. "Please, just… end this."

Chang-li withdrew the Bloodflame Toxin pattern carefully so as not to leave any trace of it in the wounds. As he did, Joshi stepped back and gestured for his opponent to stand. The man got up gingerly, bowed, then slowly backed away toward the crumpled cultivator lying 30 yards away.

"You may help with your friend," Joshi told the other male cultivator while Chang-li approached the woman.

"Better now?"

"Yes." She kept her eyes cast down. "Young Master, forgive me for attacking. We thought you to be opportunistic cultivators trying to blackmail the magistrate. That's what she told us, anyway."

"Blackmail?" Chang-li was taken aback. "We refused all her offers of hospitality. All we wanted was the lux." The cultivators were helping their injured friend who, Chang-li's relief, appeared to be alive as they were propping him up and speaking with him in a low murmur.

"I see that now." Me Shar kept her eyes fixed on his feet. "If you will permit, I will go between you and my sect and arrange for the return of your people."

"She is going to try to betray us," Joshi warned.

"We'll keep the others as hostages, and we'll bring Magen along to keep an eye on things," Chang-li said in Me Shar's hearing.

The woman went white as Magen appeared. She gasped. "I didn't realize you were such powerful cultivators. Forgive me. Are you truly the governor's new enforcers?"

"No," Chang-li snapped. "And we're not under the thumb of the Brotherhood either. I have ties to the Brotherhood thanks to my wife. That's all."

Me Shar dropped to her knees, raising her hands to her mouth. "Then you're the foreign cultivating genius prince who's married Lady Min. We've heard about you, but I thought you'd be, well, more like him," she glanced at Joshi.

Chang-li couldn't help it. As his eyes and Joshi's met, they both collapsed in a burst of laughter. "It's nothing like that," Chang-li assured her. "I'm not a foreign prince. He is," he added, hooking a thumb at Joshi. "I'm, well, six months ago, I was a scribe."

She shook her head. "Six months? I've been cultivating since I was old enough to stand. I thought I had reached the Peak of Mental Refinement, but the gulf between us is so vast. I feel I don't even have the right to call myself a cultivator."

Joshi scowled. "You have neglected your foundation. Your sect must have, what? One cycling technique and a handful of patterns, if that. You are all sloppy with your lux use, and your cores are about as strong as rice paper."

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Me Shar bent under his criticism. "You are too right, Young Master. But without time spent inside of towers or the treasures sects like you can afford, this is all we have. It's enough, most of the time."

"Enough talking," Chang-li snapped. "Let's go get my people."

He waited for Me Shar to speak with her men, and they all set off together, Me Shar at the front with Chang-li near her so she didn't try anything, Joshi escorting the prisoners.

Despite his intention not to get further involved, Chang-li's sense of justice was piqued. "So, the magistrate gives you conditional licenses?"

Me Shar replied promptly, "They are an expediency measure permitted to overseers of provincial districts covering a region of 500 or more square miles with a population density lower than 40 people per square mile, without a cultivation tower within the district."

Chang-li had seen enough provincial maps to know what she was talking about. All provinces were subdivided into districts for easier management. If he remembered his schooling correctly, Riceflower had two or three districts of such a size.

"That sounds like it's meant to allow town guards to cultivate without having to be part of a sect," he commented.

"And that probably is what it's for," Me Shar admitted. "But in practice, that's where you get rural sects cropping up. My family has a cycling technique and a pattern we learned from a greater sect five generations ago. We protect its secrets." She glared back over her shoulder at the other men. "All of those idiots are my cousins."

"And you've made it this high in progression just off of what you've skimmed from the repository?" Chang-li was working the math, and it didn't add up.

Me Shar hesitated. "Two generations ago, my family decided to invest more resources in our most promising cultivators. Two of my uncles and an aunt were the beneficiaries. They were given extra lux and some resources we scraped to buy and were able to secure positions in larger sects. They have repaid that investment by funneling resources toward us. My brother and I are the beneficiaries of the plan this time. My brother was in Varden City during the bridal competition trying to secure a place in a sect. I couldn't go because Magistrate Noor was taking advantage of the distraction to harvest more lux."

She was being astonishingly free with her words. Me Shar looked at him, and her face set in a grim look. "You think I'm telling you too many secrets, don't you? You could arrange for my whole sect to be crushed. I figure we've already made ourselves your enemies, but if I'm honest with you, maybe your anger will be focused where it should be: on Magistrate Noor."

"Chang-li is a sucker for bureaucracy and filling out the right forms. The magistrate's malfeasance frustrates him," Joshi said from behind them. "I appreciate anyone seizing cultivation for themselves. We won't be reporting you."

Chang-li glanced sharply at Joshi, annoyed at his abrupt announcement. Joshi looked back at him blandly and Chang-li returned his attention to Me Shar.

"No," Chang-li agreed. "Not as long as you deal honestly with us and we get our men back." It was a waste to see this sort of spirit being squandered, serving a corrupt government official. "Show me your cycling technique," he said.

Me Shar hesitated only an instant before doing as he asked. He watched her push lux around her body. She was clumsy, without the dexterity he expected from a cultivator even at the Peak of Bodily Refinement. Min had never been this bad at it, but Min had the advantage of proper tutoring.

"That's a poor technique. You've crippled your foundations. You likely won't advance past this stage," he said. He realized as he spoke how harsh his words sounded.

Me Shar merely nodded. "I know. This is enough. My brother said that he thought he could get me a place as an outer disciple in a sect, and we could send more back home to our family. For us, that's enough."

Chang-li had no obligation to these people. They'd put themselves in his way and potentially hurt people he was obligated to protect, but the kind of poor teaching offended him. Perhaps when he was done at the Morning Mist headquarters, he could arrange for one of the Brotherhood recruits to come here and teach them a bit of proper cycling. But without more lux, it was useless anyway. This rural sect had done what they could with what they had.

He admired that. Joshi was right. It took grit and determination. He'd done more, starting with less. But he wasn't comparing them to him. He was comparing them to people like the dishonest magistrate.

"You deal honestly with me, and I'll deal honestly with you," he assured Me Shar, who looked somewhat hopeful as they approached the city.

"Magistrate's probably got spying eyes," she warned, "but my people have your men, and she won't directly interfere. We have some dirt on her, too and she knows it."

She and Chang-li left Joshi and the others outside the city near the steps leading down to the river. They headed deep into the town to a merchant square where shopkeepers were bringing out their stalls for the morning.

On one side of the square was a large laundry, with a big open front room full of shelves with pressed tunics, robes, and inner garments, and doors opening to the yard beyond where women were setting up steaming washtubs.

Me Shar led him to the back room, where a pair of men were squatting on the floor beside a large trap door. Chang-li's eyes went to it at once. The men scrambled up.

"Me Shar, none of that," she snapped. "Release the prisoners at once if you want Rii and Diya back alive again."

Their eyes were riveted on Chang-li. "This is the foreign cultivator. Magistrate Noor set us up," Me Shar said bitterly. "He spared our lives because we're so pathetic, but if we don't want him taking this entire town apart, we're giving him back his people."

She waited as the men pulled back the trap door, then leaned out into the main part of the shop. "Sumae?"

A 10-year-old girl, popped up from behind a shelf full of clean laundry she was folding.

"Yes, Me Shar?"

"Go and find my father. Tell him I need him here at once."

The girl rushed off, knocking over a basket full of dirty linens. As Chang-li waited for his men to appear, a pair of women came in bearing baskets full of clean laundry, which they set down before hauling the dirties out. He could smell the soap and lye from the tubs out back. The noise of washing paddles and shouts of working women drowned out any sound that might have come from the prisoners in the cellar. It was a good hiding place.

The two Brotherhood men emerged, rubbing their wrists. Apparently, they had just been cut free. They blinked as they saw Chang-li, their mouths dropping open.

"Elder brother, you came for us. Is Brother Eeli all right?"

"He's fine," Chang-li assured them.

"Elder brother, you were correct. The magistrate is stealing from the townsfolk and—"

"Not now," Chang-li said. "You two are to head straight out of town to the staircase down. Young Master Joshi is waiting there. He'll have the prisoners sent back." He pointed at Magen bobbing over their heads. "Magen will keep an eye on you and make sure you get back safely."

The Brotherhood men bowed and wasted no time rushing from the shop. Chang-li turned to Me Shar. "I suppose you want me to stay and speak with your sect leader?"

"I do," she said. "My father needs to hear how badly we were defeated. I've been wanting to cut ties with Magistrate Noor for months now. It's not safe to work with someone so greedy. When we were only taking a tenth of the repository's lux, we could get away with it. But she's increased to nearly a third. I told her before that with the tower eruption at Varden City contained, we'd be seeing cultivators come through, and she told me she would take care of that, but you can see how well that worked." Her expression grew more sour.

They didn't have long to wait. A middle-aged man hurried into the shop. Despite the fact Me Shar had called him their sect leader, he was only at the Peak of Bodily Refinement, and it hadn't seemed to do much for him. His face bore age spots. His hands were wrinkled, and his shoulders hunched. He entered, saw Chang-li and Me Shar, then bowed low.

"Young Master, forgive my daughter's presumptions. Whatever it is, I take the blame, not her."

"It's all right, father," Me Shar broke in. "I've explained the situation to him, and he's remarkably understanding. Assuming they don't try anything else stupid, our men will be returned."

"You are too gracious, Young Master." The man bowed even lower. It was frankly ridiculous.

"I'm sending my people back downriver to report on the magistrate's corruption," Chang-li said. "This town can't afford to have a woman who's both greedy and stupid in charge. That means you'll have about a week before it's swarming with provincial guardsmen. I suggest you take advantage of that fact to do most of their work before they get here. If you have the magistrate trussed up in a package with the evidence of her guilt, I doubt they'll look much further than that. You should have a plausible story about how you just learned of her corruption, something that lines up close enough with whatever tale she will try to spin. I also suggest you make sure you only have the correct number of provisionally licensed cultivators in the city when they arrive."

"Young Master, your wisdom is truly that of the divine emperors set down from on high."

Chang-li raised a hand. "You don't need to flatter me. I was just trying to pass through and get some lux. Oh, and straighten up already, please, elder."

"Then how can we repay you?" the man asked as he raised his face to Chang-li's level. "My sect has some funds, a little—"

Chang-li shook his head. "Not necessary."

The man looked from him to Me Shar and back. "You, uh... That is, my daughter—"

"No!" Chang-li recoiled. He shook his head quickly. "No, even if she was... That is, I'm married. And I didn't do it for any kind of gain. You and your people interrupted me and my friend on a training journey. I want to leave without any more interruptions, all right? Look, if you have to be grateful to someone, be grateful to the Brotherhood of the Oaken Band. Mostly be grateful that you didn't kill any of their men," he added.

The sect leader's eyes went wide. He turned on his daughter. "You captured Oaken Band men?"

"We didn't know who they were when Magistrate Noor sent us after them," Me Shar said miserably.

"And you didn't immediately set them free with our apologies and an offer to put them up in our best holdings?" Her father shook his head. "We do deserve to have this whole scheme come down around our heads. Thank you for your mercy, young master. I'll—"

"If you make sure this never comes to my attention again, that's all I want," Chang-li said. "Now, I have a long journey to make, and I've already spent far too much time here." He turned on his heel and left the laundry. Checking his lux reserves as he went, he was nearly three-quarters full, and that would have to be enough. He didn't want to spend another hour in this town if he could help it.

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