Eli flicked a glance sharp as a tossed pebble at the crowding Liqianyu. “Why’re you tailing me? Go do what you’re supposed to.”
Her face stayed flat as still water, like nothing had rippled. “I’m broke.”
“Not my damn problem. Scram.” His voice snapped like a door in a gust.
“Tsk, we trudged through hell and high water together, didn’t we?” Her smile was thin as a blade’s edge.
“Scram.”
“Tsk. You’re something else.”
“Are you gonna spit it out or what?” Eli planted one hand on his hip, helpless as a man under steady rain.
Liqianyu raked her hair like wind teasing tall grass. “Honestly, I’m just a tourist, out from home to train. But my wallet seems gone. So…”
“You still don’t need to stick to me, do you?” Eli’s brow creased like frost lines on a window. “I found you that snow-shoveling job. Finish, get paid, and move on. Why leech off me?”
“It’s just—together, the costs get smaller.” She pouted, lips like a cherry in winter. Eli pressed a palm over her face. “Cut it out. You don’t talk like that.”
“Fine, fine. It’s ’cause you’re a mage. Mages seem loaded. Lemme freeload meals and drinks, yeah?” Liqianyu flopped onto the ground like a boneless cat. “I don’t care—ditch me and I’ll run to the Mage Association and say you’ve been messing around.”
“You—!”
“What?”
“…”
“Deal. Sure.” Eli suddenly smiled, sun through snowcloud. “But on the road, don’t just eat and do nothing.”
“Oh-ho, don’t you worry.” Liqianyu froze a beat, incredulous as a sparrow hearing thunder. “Say, do you actually despise me?”
“Nah, just asking.” Eli shook the fallen snow from his cloak, white feathers off a raven’s back. “Anyway, this afternoon I’m taking Edlyn to the mage exam. You look after Xili and Angela.”
“You… trust me that much? Not afraid I’ll make trouble?” She laughed, eyes like foxfire. “You’re not afraid I’ll just run off with the two girls?”
“Why would I? I trust you. For real.” Eli’s voice was warm as a hearth.
He’d already slipped a simple spell-signal onto Angela, a firefly tucked under a sleeve. He’d been worrying for a reason to boot Liqianyu, too; if she pulled a trick, he’d send her straight back to the Far East’s Inferno. Call it a small test. He couldn’t take in every stray that wandered through.
Still, if not for that mad girl’s earth-shaking martial art he wanted to learn, he might never have nodded at all.
…
“Mage?”
“Yeah.”
“An archmage past Tier Ten?”
“Yeah.”
“Also pretty deep into Battle Aura?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why the hell are you short on cash? Go ask the Mage Tower.” City Lord Tengger glared at me, then tossed my file aside like a dead leaf.
I leaned back, calm as a stone under streamwater. I’m here to get paid; what’s with the thunderclap.
While Edlyn went to test, I’d swung by to collect my archmage gold stipend.
While I waited for appraisal, this uncle waved my ‘report card’ and dragged me to the City Lord’s manor like a fisherman hauling a net.
“Damn it, if you’d said so earlier, I could’ve squeezed the Mage Association for a fat cut,” Tengger slapped the desk, palms like drumbeats.
Hey, I’m the one involved here. Flexing about extortion in front of me? That’s a bit much.
“Ahem. So, Tengger, go find the Tower’s chairman yourself. I won’t get in the way.” I stood, ready to drift off like smoke.
He yanked me back, knocked over the teapot—splash—and tea flooded my pants like a yellow tide.
I jumped up, heat biting like nettles. “What the hell? You wanna fight?”
He ignored me and gripped my shoulders, fingers iron on bark. “Young man, join the war!”
“Huh?” My mind went blank as white sky.
“The Miter Empire is in turmoil right now. You know that, right?” His gaze probed like a spear-tip.
How would I know? If the teleportation array hadn’t spit me into this ghost place, I wouldn’t have set foot in your Miter Empire.
I nodded vaguely, perfunctory as tapping ash off a cigarette.
He stared into the distance and launched in. “Our Miter Empire is rich and strong, blah blah blah. The old king’s about to kick the bucket, blah blah blah. The princes are scrambling for power, blah blah blah…”
As for me? Nothing stuck; his words were wind in bamboo. I just wanted to change my pants. If this yellow tea dries on my trousers, I swear I’ll pull your city gate down hinge by hinge.
