Sen spent the entire afternoon and early evening making ever finer adjustments to the formation. He reassured himself several times that he was simply being thorough and not avoiding the galehouse and its current occupants. No, he thought, definitely not avoiding them. Just want to make sure that this formation is going to perform the way I need it to. I’m just being responsible. He spent so much time working on the formations that night had fallen by the time he made his way back to the galehouse. He tried very hard not to notice how invisible the big spiders that had trailed around after him became in that darkness. It was easy enough for him to keep track of them with his spiritual sense, but they would be absolutely lethal predators for anything without that advantage.

He felt two of the spiders split off when he reached the clearing where he’d erected the familiar stone building. The one that had stuck closest to him all day resumed its place by the galehouse. Something about that triggered a mild feeling of foreboding. While Sen would never credit himself with any kind of divination skills, he felt a kind of premonition that the spider would come to cause him trouble. He didn’t think it would be some kind of direct harm, but trouble all the same. Well, I’ll need to survive long enough for that to happen, he thought a little glumly. For all of his preparations with the formations, the reality of the situation had started to hang over him again.

In some ways, the disinterest of the horde in anything not related to the ruins had made it far too easy to ignore it. Not that the horde was ever really out of mind, but it never intruded as an active threat. He had always been too far away from the ruins to draw their attention. So, he’d pushed that concern to the back of his head. Now, though, he would be getting close to the ruins. The idea of drawing away the horde with his formation felt less like a plan and more like wishful thinking. It probably would attract the attention of some of them. Fire was hard on spirits and anything with a devilish influence alike, so they wouldn’t ignore it. The idea that it would draw them all away seemed increasingly unlikely to Sen. That would just be too easy and straightforward.

No, he was probably going to have to fight to get in, and he didn’t have a good strategy for that. The horde was too densely packed to get a clear read of the strength of the spirits and devilish beasts. Given how far into the wilds they’d come, though, it’d be foolish to assume any of them were weak. He’d let himself indulge in that fool’s fantasy for a few minutes because of his fast defeat of the fire eagle, but that hadn’t really been a testament to his skill. He had picked the right qi type for the fight, and that first blow he’d landed probably would have killed it eventually, but he suspected that having the ice qi blade explode inside the bird was what had truly handed him a fast victory. And he hadn’t been planning on that. It was a lucky accident.

While some would say that legends can be built on such lucky accidents, Sen wasn’t one of them. He wouldn’t reject luck if it interceded on his behalf, lest he discourage it from appearing again, but he preferred the surety of skill and the certainty of knowledge. It was the absence of the latter that worried him. While he trusted his skill to see him through most fights, he rarely faced fights where he knew so little about his enemies, let alone what waited beyond those enemies. Sen had tried on several occasions to pry more information out of Laughing River about the monks who once resided in the temple city, but the elder fox had proved less than forthcoming. The problem was that Sen couldn’t tell if the fox truly didn’t know, or simply chose to withhold the information for his own reasons. He had considered simply refusing to even attempt entry to the ruins if the fox didn’t convince him, but Sen knew he wouldn’t. His curiosity had been roused. He wanted to see what was inside those ancient buildings. Turning back now would leave him with a yearning for knowledge that would never go away. So, he set aside his misgivings and went inside.The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Is it ready?” asked Laughing River.

“Yes. I’ll go in the morning,” said Sen.

“I think you mean we’ll go,” corrected Misty Peak.

Sen shrugged. “I suppose.”

“Why does she get to go?” asked Li Yi Nuo as she glared at Misty Peak from across the room.

“She negotiates better than you,” said Sen.

“What does that mean?” asked the sect woman.

Sen waved a dismissive hand at the foxes. “Take it up with them. Unlike the rest of you, I actually did something today. I’m tired.”

“I did something today,” said Misty Peak. “It was even a very annoying thing that I didn’t want to do. I should get some credit for that.”

Sen started walking toward his room in the hope of getting clear before Li Yi Nuo worked out the obvious. He got most of the way there.

“Are you talking about me?” demanded an angry Li Yi Nuo.

“Well, you are annoying, and I did have to do something with you. So, I’m going to go with yes,” said Misty Peak.

“I should kill you,” said Li Yi Nuo in a low, dangerous voice.

“Don’t you think you should intervene?” asked Laughing River, not even trying to hide how entertaining he found the whole situation.

Sen looked back at the room. “I spent the entire day doing everything I can to try to ensure that I don’t die tomorrow.”

That statement hit everyone in the room like they’d been splashed with cold water. Li Yi Nuo and Misty Peak both got guilty expressions, while the amusement faded entirely from Laughing River’s expression. Sen nodded, finding their reactions wholly appropriate. He continued.

“I agreed to take her along so that she’d bring you back,” said Sen, gesturing at Misty Peak while glaring at Li Yi Nuo. “While I don’t expect an outpouring of gratitude, it might be nice if you could stop looking for reasons to be angry every five minutes.”

“I didn’t mean-,” started Li Yi Nuo.

Sen turned to Misty Peak, who looked very nervous.

“And you. You say you’ve given up on your mission to kill your not-particularly-beloved grandfather, but words are cheap. Yeah, you’re getting your way, but do you honestly think that makes me feel better about all of this? Now, I get to worry about the possibilities of enemies in front of me and enemies behind me. That’s always the best frame of mind to have when you’re going into a life-or-death situation. That definitely won’t prove a lethal distraction.”

Misty Peak looked like she was about to say something, but Sen transferred his glare to Laughing River.

“And all of this to get something so that you won’t die. What’s your contribution to enhancing my odds of survival? Encouraging these two to argue, which you know frustrates me. At every turn, the three of you have been a constant source of delays and distractions. While I can understand the need to lighten the mood a little from time to time, this ceaseless bickering is not helpful for me. While none of you may care what happens to me tomorrow, I do. So, no, I’m not going to intervene. If you two kill each other, I’m fine with it at this point. It just means two fewer things on my already long list of problems.”

After that tirade, even Laughing River looked a little embarrassed. Sen thought about giving the lot of them a chance to respond but decided against it. He just turned on a heel and went into the room he’d been using since they arrived. He wondered if he might have been a little harder on the three than they actually deserved. He couldn’t help but question if he lashing out at them because he was afraid. It was possible, likely even, but not necessarily out of line. He hadn’t said anything that was untrue. They had all been amusing, at times, but they had also been irritations that added days to his time out in the deep wilds. Time that he felt would have been better spent getting back to where he was going. As he dropped onto the bed he’d set up in the room, he made a decision.

“If they act like that in the morning, I’m leaving,” he said.

While he was mostly sure that neither Li Yi Nuo nor Misty Peak could have heard the words, he expected that Laughing River could. It was Sen’s final warning to the fox that his patience had run out. He’d made the good faith effort, even going so far as to ignore his initial misgivings. Sen’s tolerance for the people and the situation had simply run dry.