One of the things that Sen hated about coming out the other side of a fight was that, when it was over, it wasn’t actually over. There were always a hundred little details to take care of before you could finally collapse somewhere and rest. As much as he just wanted to shoo Shen Mingxia back to her sect with instructions to come see him the next day, that wasn’t going to suffice. She wanted to talk and ask about how to get in touch with him if there was some dire emergency. He answered her questions with as much patience as he could muster, but he drew the line when she tried to bring up her life debt to him. He held up a hand to stop her.

“I appreciate that all of these things are important to you, Shen Mingxia. Still, you do realize that I’m injured, don’t you?”

Her eyes went a little wide and a blush crept across her cheeks. She offered him a deep bow. “Apologies, Senior. These things can, of course, wait until you are recovered.”

“My appreciation,” said Sen.

By that point, other members of the Soaring Skies sect were trickling into view, no doubt there to recover the bodies of their fallen sect mates. Sen didn’t really want to be at hand while they dealt with that grisly task. Regardless of the official ceasefire between him and the sect, hard feelings were bound to be at play. Better not to be a convenient target of opportunity if he didn’t have to be one. Shen Mingxia offered him another bow before she went off to greet the other members of her sect. One problem down, Sen moved on to the next, much easier problem. He retrieved the formation flags he used to suppress the demonic cultivator. That was a disappointingly brief task, which put him face-to-face with a much more complicated and troubling task. Lo Meifeng had quietly watched Sen dismiss Shen Mingxia and gather his formation flags with a look of quiet bemusement on her face. Given how much pain he was still in, the expression annoyed Sen. Unfortunately, he also knew it was the pain making him grouchy, so he didn’t really feel like he could take his frustrations out on her, as much as he wanted to. Sighing, he nodded at the Silver Crane.

“I guess we need to talk, at least briefly, but I wasn’t joking with Shen Mingxia. I really am injured. I need sleep even more than I need answers from you. And that’s saying something because I need many answers from you.”

As nonchalant as the woman had been about Elder Deng’s fury, she seemed far less impervious to Sen’s casual annoyance. If anything, her demeanor suggested that she was a little bit afraid of him, which struck Sen as absurd. At least, it did until reason caught up with him. It’s not me she’s afraid of, he realized. She’s afraid of what Master Feng might do based on what I tell him. That was a useful tidbit to have tucked away for future consideration, but Sen was beyond the point of playing those kinds of games with anyone. He felt like he’d fall asleep where he was if he stopped moving for too long. With an effort of will and qi, Sen triggered the formation protecting the Silver Crane to turn itself off.

It was one of those little tricks that Uncle Kho had made him practice. Most formations would stay on until they ran out of power. At least, they would if they were set up the way Sen had set that formation up with a set of beast cores to keep it going. That was fine if you were inside the formation, but supremely unhelpful if you needed to be outside of it. It was a problem that had vexed Uncle Kho for a long time before he finally came up with a solution. Tucked away in an obscure little spot was a tiny snarl of qi that was keyed to Sen’s unique qi makeup. It let him, and only him, deactivate the formation at will. It seemed that Lo Meifeng had never encountered such a thing before because she stared at him.

“How in the hells did you do that?” she asked.

“Trade secret,” said Sen, pushing open the door to the Silver Crane and stepping inside.

Lo Meifeng had followed him inside and almost walked straight into his motionless back. Sen was staring at the collected employees of the place. They were all bowing at the waist to him, their upper bodies nearly parallel to the floor. Sen’s tired mind just didn’t know what to do with the sight, so it just sort of stuttered to a stop. At least, it did until Lo Meifeng’s whispered words launched his mind back into some semblance of activity.

“You don’t see that every day,” she said in tones so low that Sen was certain only he could hear her speak.

“Please, rise,” said Sen. “This isn’t necessary.”

What followed was an exercise in politeness that strained the limits of Sen’s little remaining patience. He had to endure their profuse exclamations of eternal gratitude. Then, he had to explain that the Soaring Skies sect would bother them no more. This was followed by even more expressions of gratitude and relief, along with a lot more bowing. Sen did his best to look composed and friendly, but he eventually had to beg off with excuses about his injuries and a deep need for rest. The only person who appeared less than thrilled was Lifen. She was directing her unfriendly glare at Lo Meifeng, though, so Sen was fine with that state of affairs. He stopped long enough to tell her that his master had sent the woman and that he needed to speak with Lo Meifeng privately for a few moments. Lifen sniffed, gave the other woman a final, hostile glare, and went to speak with her mother. Sen walked into the first empty room he found and gestured that Lo Meifeng should join him. She gave the room a dubious look.

“I’m not that kind of servant,” said Lo Meifeng.

“That’s good because I’m not particularly attracted to you,” said Sen.

She directed a narrowed-eyed look at Sen that gave her a vaguely feline air. “One might interpret that as a comment on my appearance.”

“Or one might interpret that as a comment on my preferences. You’re a core formation cultivator, somewhere in the middle stage, right?”

“I am.”

“And you work for Master Feng in some capacity. Those two facts suggest that you are almost certainly much older than your appearance suggests. Am I wrong?”

Lo Meifeng tilted her head to one side, but said, “You are not.”

“Well, I am exactly as old as I look, and recent events have shown me just how much life experience matters, and how it can change a person. In short, you’re just too old for me, all other things being equal.”

Lo Meifeng studied him for a few moments before she laughed. “Well, that’s an oddly reasonable way to look at it. Good for you.”

“Thanks,” said Sen, his tone dry. “Now, tell me why you’re here. If possible, do it in under a minute.”

“I was sent to keep an eye on you. If you got into real trouble, I was to intervene, and,” she winced, “I was supposed to spread that name around.”

“Judgment’s Gale?”

“Yes, that one.”

“Why would anyone want to be called that?” Sen demanded.

“I didn’t pick it,” said Le Meifeng. “I was just tasked to spread it around.”

“And keep an eye on me.”

“Yes.”

“You’re doing a really great job so far,” observed Sen.

“Hey, I’m not the one who vanished into the wilds without a trace on the road north,” said Lo Meifeng, pointing at him. “That was all you. It took me this long to catch up with you and, in case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t a one-inn village. It wasn’t like I could just ask where you were at the gate.”

“Why didn’t you come straight here?”

“Because I didn’t know it existed. Do you have any idea how much property, how many businesses, your master owns?”

Sen shrugged, “No.”

“Well, neither do I. I know about some, but this wasn’t one of them. Honestly, I’m not sure that anyone in the world except your master has a complete list. That’s assuming he hasn’t forgotten about a bunch of them.”

Sen opened his mouth to defend his master’s mildly-slighted honor, but the woman was probably right. Master Feng likely had forgotten about a bunch of places that he owned. Sen nodded in acknowledgment of the point.

“Okay, fine, I can own up to the fact that I may have made it hard for you to find me. Yet, I feel like most of the guilt is wiped away by the fact that I didn’t know about you. How long have you been following me?”

“Since Orchard’s Reach.”

“And you just couldn’t be bothered to say hello?”

“You weren’t supposed to know about me unless you got yourself into some serious trouble.”

“You felt like the moments after I managed to secure a truce with the Soaring Skies sect was the time to intervene.”

“Sects are complicated. That elder might have meant what he said, he might not have. Well, I’ll give Elder Deng the benefit of the doubt that he meant it. He seemed honorable enough in his way. But there was nothing to stop them from changing their minds tomorrow or a week from now, or for a hidden faction of demonic cultivators in the sect to come after you again. Calling you out as Master Feng’s student makes you, at least by proxy, the threat of irresistible force. Even demonic cultivators are going to think very long and very hard about making serious attempts on your life now.”

Sen let her words settle into his mind. He tried to look at them objectively. As much as he wanted to think that he’d brokered a lasting peace with the sect, he couldn’t deny that having the threat of Master Feng’s wrath hanging in the background almost certainly made that deal more likely to stick. Nor was Sen so prideful to think that he needed to accomplish every achievement on his own. He might one day face the heavens alone, but that didn’t mean he had to face everything alone. A helping hand now and then, well, that was something that Sen could live with. Even so, Lo Meifeng was still a lingering problem.

“So, you’re what? My minder? My keeper? Should I expect to find you hanging around in the background everywhere I go?”

Sen could tell that the woman was looking for the right words and her expression suggested she wasn’t finding them. After a pregnant pause, she sighed. “Yes, essentially.”

“Well,” said Sen, pinching the bridge of his nose, “won’t that be just delightful for both of us? Fine. I’m too tired and hurt to argue about this right now. So, minder, I’m going to go and sleep for the next day or two. I’ll be here if you need me for something.”

Lo Meifeng was very still for a moment before she ducked her head a little and said, “Very well.”

Having at least temporarily solved that problem, Sen went and dealt with his last outstanding task. He collected up the formation flags and beast cores he’d used to protect the Silver Crane. With everything that absolutely needed to be handled, handled, Sen stumbled up to his room and collapsed toward the bed. He was out before his head even touched the pillow.