Leander watched the older boy from his place behind the reception desk. It was his turn this week to guard the guild, and that meant it was his job to size up everyone who came in.

Rex was a stupid name. It was true, even if he knew not to say it out loud. The boy had come in an hour ago, sauntering up like he owned the building. Leander knew the type. He'd seen more than a few on the street growing up. They thought they were better than everyone, and that they should get things because of it. This Rex guy had the same expression on his face when he demanded a sign up sheet. Now they were waiting for Madam Sabrina to be free to do the test. He probably wouldn't even pass. You had to be a proper cultivator to be in the guild. Not some random guy from out of town who thought he was better than everyone.

He jumped a bit when Sabrina spoke from behind him.

"Rex Miton? We're ready to go through the assessment. It looks like your application is in order. Now we just need to confirm magical ability. Do you have a preference or specialty?"

The boy smirked and stood up. He was taller than Leander, but that didn't count, he was barely fourteen and still growing. Guessing ages was hard, but he thought this Rex person was between James and Cooper. Maybe Gabrielle's late teens or early twenties. That was definitely the only reason his muscles were so impressive. Leander would have better muscles once he grew into it, everyone said so. The haircut was stupid too, short on the sides and a bit longer on top.

"It's hard to choose just one thing. How about this?"

Rex pulled a rock out of his pocket and started pushing it around in the air. I mean, it was okay, he guessed. Leander could push air around too.

"I can do more but don't want to ruin the shop."

Then he winked at Madam Sabrina. Winked! Who did this guy think he was?

"I hear there are a lot of magicians here in the capital. Maybe I can stop by and give some lessons," Rex was saying when Leander paid more attention to the conversation.

"Hmm." The glint in Madam Sabrina's eye was a small comfort. "Your cultivation qualifies you for a level two individual membership. Unless you have an organization or group you represent?" When Rex shook his head Sabrina continued. "Come back to the office and we'll discuss what that entails. You'll owe dues to the sect, in time and other resources, though we've tried to avoid overburdening our members. The rest is a fairly straightforward combination of artisan and service-based guilds…"

He couldn't hear any more once the door closed. Or could he? The last lesson Laurel had given him, which she'd started making him pay for with contribution points, was about how sound travels through air. If Laurel wanted to hear a conversation, she brought the sound towards her ears. Or blocked it out if she wanted peace. She also said it was difficult, especially for cultivators like them that focus on making big things happen. Difficult didn't mean impossible. He could do it. A cultivator challenged the heavens. They didn't stop just because a technique was hard.

A sneaky look out into the street didn't show anyone, and the bell was set up to go off if anyone did come in. He closed his eyes and reached his mana out into the world. Usually, this would be where he grabbed the ambient mana and told the air to move. Instead he tried to focus on everything he could hear.

At first it was just his own breathing, heavy with excitement. Once he calmed down, noise from the street filtered in. Nothing distinct, just the jangling hum of the Flats. It was comforting, in its way. He'd lived with that music for most of his life, not noticing it at all until he moved into the sect house and relearned how to sleep without constant noise. As he strained, more and more mana connecting around him, he could hear a murmur that had to be the voices from the back. Yes!

He focused on his connection and tried to tell the mana he wanted to hear everything. When nothing happened, he pulled.

An explosion went off in the shop. Leander fell to the floor and curled into a ball. It just kept going. Every scrape, echo, whisper was happening right next to his ear, like a gunshot and the engine of a plane combined with the hammering of an industrial forging warehouse.

When he found himself enough to cut off the mana, he was a gasping, crying mess on the ground behind the desk. His ears were ringing and he couldn't tell if anyone had noticed. Slowly, slower than any snail or magic turtle, he moved his head so that just his eyes peeked out over the slab of wood.

No one.

He sighed, then flinched at the small movement. Every muscle in his body ached, and his head felt like a nail was being driven into his brain, right behind his eyes. Leander made it to the chair and sprawled, trying to recover.

A cultivator embraced pain. He tried to remind himself but it didn't help. Nor did his fear of what he knew he had to do next. Those lessons were clear, and didn't cost extra points. When you got injured, you cycled your mana. But for the first time, he was afraid to do that.

A cultivator faced his fears. Leander reached for his mana and prompted it to move around a little faster than the sluggish pace it was sitting at after his attempt at a technique. Then he almost cried again when it didn't hurt. He wiped at his eyes and sat up straight. By the time the others came back out, stupid Rex and his stupid hair carrying an armful of papers, Leander was mostly back to normal.

"The members down at the Eternal Archive do like hearing about different mana techniques. Isn't that right Leander?"

He looked up and nodded. It wasn't Madam Sabrina's fault she had to be nice to everyone who came in.

She clapped her hands together. "How about this? Leander, your shift is going to be over soon anyway. Why don't you take Rex to meet some of the others. He's interested in hearing more about the sect. Or, even better, Laurel was going to be working at the harbor today. Something about a spirit beast stealing the local fishing hauls. See if you can catch her while she's down there."

Glumly, he nodded again. Of course now he was forced to hang out with Rex. At least Laurel would see through him. They left and made their way down to the harbor, and Rex would not stop asking him questions. And then he barely paid attention to Leander when he was trying to give the answers. And every single one came with a reason why it was beneath Rex to have already known that.

"So, you're part of the sect huh? I guess it makes sense for weaker folks to band together for protection."

"Your boss is working to do pest control for the port? I guess someone has to do it. I try and fight off the bigger things that get close to the town I'm from, but we have a local militia that deals with the little stuff. And one other wizard, but she's weaker than me."

"I saved a carriage on the way here from a massive lizard. You should have seen it. Put a spike of rocks right through its heart. Blood everywhere. But then they gave me a ride the rest of the way."

By the time they reached the farthest pier, Leander was ready to push the older boy in. If he was such a great cultivator, he'd be fine. Not that Leander believed him. Laurel didn't go around bragging about her past fights. Or she did, sometimes, but those were lessons! Besides, he'd actually seen her fight so he knew it was the truth. The lizard stupid Rex had fought off was probably not even dangerous.

"Where is she then?" Rex said. He was scanning the docks but he was looking in the wrong direction.

Leander pointed. From high above, Laurel came soaring out over the harbor, past the breakwaters and out into the open ocean. She was just a tiny figure in the air, but there was no one else flying around the city so he could tell it was her. He puffed out his chest. Stupid Rex thought he was so impressive. But could he fly? No.

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They watched as the dot that was Laurel plunged beneath the waves.

"Stars above. She fell! We have to tell someone!"

Leander scoffed. Seeing Rex was about to run off he pulled out his sound stone. It was getting a bit worse for wear so he was only really using it when he couldn't get his point across any other way. But of course stupid Rex wasn't paying any attention to him.

"She didn't fall. She's diving," came out of the stone.

"Wait what's that?" Rex was staring at the stone around Leander's neck.

Instead of answering he tucked it back under his shirt and turned slightly to watch the ocean.

"Pfft. Whatever."

Leander forced his clenched hands to relax. Neither of them said anything else until Laurel returned to the surface. Instead of flying up into the air, she stayed hovering over the water, dragging something behind her. Watching for a moment, Leander saw she was angling over to a rocky area closer to the fort where a few people were waiting. He hurried to join them. Stupid Rex could follow if he wanted to. Or not. He didn't care.

But Rex did follow him, and they reached the group, which he now saw was a couple of soldiers, and a few random other people, around the same time Laurel did. He didn't pay attention, because she was dragging a monster behind her. The kind he'd seen in little drawings in the newspaper or the books that he'd wanted to read when he was younger. He couldn't quite understand how all the pieces fit together. It only got worse when he realized only part of it was sticking out of the water. When Laurel dragged the whole thing onto land, he had to blink to even understand it. Retching to the side reminded him Rex was there as well. Hah, Rex couldn't even handle seeing a monster.

Tentacles trailed down from the body. Another set spewed from the mouth. It was a mottled dark blue color, barely distinguishable from the ocean itself. When the whole body was laying down on the rocky beach with all the limbs extended, it was longer than half the boats in port. Maybe he could forgive Rex for this one thing. It was disgusting. But no, no one else was losing their lunch at the sight of it.

"Oh, hi Leander, came to watch? And you brought a friend too. Huh. While I talk to our good friends here from the Butcher's Block and Fort Sarken, how about you two take a look and tell me how you think it should be harvested."

Great. Rex showed up and now Leander had extra chores. But he trotted forward to follow instructions. Rex was slower behind him but he still came. Laurel just talked like she expected people to listen, and it worked every time.

His first impression was that it smelled less than he expected. He let his spiritual sense slide over the body, the way Martin had taught him. The core was right in the middle of the nest of tentacles. Leander clambered over to the other side to try and get a better angle. No way was he shoving his hand in there. Nothing else stuck out to him in his spiritual senses. He knew it was dead, but he could barely tell anything was there at all.

The crowd of grownups came back over, and Laurel looked at him. "So, what do you think?"

Pointing towards the core got him an approving nod.

"Good. Anything else?"

He shrugged at that. Nothing else felt magical to him.

"What about you?"

Rex jumped when Laurel's attention moved to him. He hadn't said anything since Laurel dragged the monster out of the ocean.

"Umm. When we pull the freshwater squid out of the stream, we fry up the tentacles. But, umm…"

Wait, Laurel was nodding to him too. No, that's not how it was supposed to go. Stupid Rex didn't even know how to find the core.

"Good. Lesson time." Laurel angled her body so that she was talking to them, the soldiers, the other people, and a few random gawkers a ways back from the water. "This is a fairly standard juvenile kraken. The adults stay in the deep water and carve out territories for themselves, but sometimes you'll see a young one like this looking for a cheap meal around fishing towns. You can't let them stay. Their instincts say 'fight off all comers' which is not a good situation for fishermen. That's where the stories come from of them attacking boats. It's never the adults, unless something messes with them first.

"Now, to harvest, you can treat it as a big cephalopod. Even though it looks like we randomly shoved bits together from every squid and octopus we could find."

A short sword appeared and drifted towards Leander. Noooooo! This wasn't supposed to be his job today. "Leander you correctly found the Core, so getting that out will be your job. Watch out for the beak."

She pointed at Rex, "Leander's friend, why don't you come over and help out our esteemed master butchers. You're right that the tentacles are the tastiest part.

"Here" she tossed a small pack to one of the butchers.

The woman caught it and pulled the drawstring to reveal the tell-tale sheen of mana crystals inside.

"Those are short-term ice crystals. Should keep the meat from spoiling until you deal with it."

Laurel met his glare with a raised eyebrow. He knew what that meant. Gripping the sword, he approached the carcass. The blade was about as long as his arm, which was at least better than the daggers and knives he had been using the last time he harvested. He poked the skin with the tip of the blade. It was rubbery but it didn't put up too much resistance. He focused on where the core was and pushed the blade forward slowly.

"The adults have much thicker skin."

Laurel's voice came from right behind him, but he only jumped a little. Progress. His sword stopped moving forward so he drew it back out.

"Get in there," Laurel said, slapping him on the shoulder.

He would not be sick. He would not be sick. He would not be sick. Maybe if he just kept chanting it in his head it would come true. His arm sank into the gore up to his shoulder and the tips of his fingers brushed the hard crystal. Gritting his teeth, he dragged it out. A lump of black rock, like a dull coal. He turned it over in his hands a few times but it was nothing as exciting as he was hoping for from a real-life sea monster.

Beside him Laurel let out a soft whistle. "Well we're keeping that. Good thing Adam actually likes hanging around with Martin, we're going to be getting ink-based cultivation resources from the deep sea from now on. Tell you what, you and your friend go back to the sect, and tell Annette I said you could help set the price in the contribution store. You can tell Adam how much you suffered for it when he gets back."

Then with a wink and a wave at the butchers she was gone. A single leap and then she was soaring high into the sky, towards whatever the next adventure was. And Leander was left standing with stupid Rex, while his whole arm was covered in kraken blood.

"So. She's terrifying, yeah?" Rex had rejoined him and stood watching where Laurel had disappeared.

Just another way to tell Rex was way worse than anyone in their sect. Even the newer members who didn't have meridians yet. Even Lucy! He kept his cool and shrugged instead. Laurel was terrifying but in a good way.

He stomped off towards the sect, and dumb Rex kept following him. Technically Laurel told him to, so Leander wasn't supposed to be mad about it.

*********

Everything Rex knew was a lie. He'd been so proud, fighting off the local monsters near his village. When he heard about the new guild he figured it would be easy to join, and he'd be so strong they would fall over themselves to five him useful stuff.

No. Apparently being strong was being able to fucking fly. Then single-handedly drag a sea monster out onto the beach because it "tastes good".

He was following the quiet kid because he really wasn't sure what else to do. That didn't seem like a woman you disobeyed, but he was not entirely clear on what a sect even was.

***********

They had more than one guest at dinner that evening. Leander's new friend was down in the cluster of initiates, head swiveling every time somebody moved. Meanwhile, a Naxian cultivator had arrived at the city that afternoon and stopped by the sect to deliver news and a letter, and was joining her and Annette for 'a good meal after all that way,' courtesy of Esther.

It was good to hear from Oro after their tumultuous binding of his City Core. Once they'd returned to Verilia, Laurel had sent off a couple books they had on dragon clan culture, written by those dragons. She had thought Adam was actually ready to attack her when she did it, and had acquiesced to allowing him to scribe copies and send those instead. But anything could happen when something like that had to cross a mountain range, a desert, and be handed off at least three times. It was honestly quite impressive he'd gotten them at all.

But he had, and his letter was full of questions and a request for more. It was hard to imagine what the boy was going through. It put her own loneliness that first year in perspective. At least she hadn't been the last of her species.

"I'll have an answer tomorrow," she told the Naxian . This wasn't one of the cultivators that had challenged the dungeon, but he was almost as strong as they were. Young too, maybe thirties, if she had to guess. He was wearing the loose linens in light colors and full coverage that were so popular back in Araxis, only his face and hands left uncovered.

"Thank you. Lord Oro will be pleased," he said.

"Lord is it?" Laurel asked.

"With his influence over the city, it was determined to elevate Lord Oro to the ruling council. He has been given permission to start a clan, and control over one of the more remote oases, as well."

"Good for him," Laurel said. Annette murmured in agreement. "How is everything going over there, magically?"

"Quite well. Lord Oro has learned much, and has opened the dungeon to several of us who wish to prove our mettle. The rewards have been most useful."

"Glad to hear it. I have a few students I think would benefit in another couple of years." She gestured down the table at the rest of the sect, getting looks of terror, confusion, or excitement based on if the students had heard any of what she said, and how much time they spent with Leander and Rebecca.

"I am sure Lord Oro would be pleased to host your sect members," he said. "That reminds me. I have gifts." The quiet man handed over a beautifully carved wooden box, with a brass clasp holding it closed.

Not wasting any time, Laurel popped it open. She loved presents. Nestled inside were three lumps of citrine crystals, a few preserved sprigs of some plant, a small sack of dried mushrooms, a jar of something, and tucked behind everything else, a small handful of golden scales.

"This is a prince's ransom. More than I would expect."

"It is impossible to give too many gifts to friends, Madam Stormblade. But we admit there is some additional motivation behind this.

"In our time of need, it is worth strengthening our allies. We recently received a visitor from the Empire. Implying that we should be happy to take them as our overlords. Oh, they said it differently but that was the meaning. She was not strong enough to make it true by force, but the implication was there."

Not what she wanted to hear. "I cannot do more than reinforce our status as allies and friends. And implore Oro to focus on defenses, along with the rest of your clans, in whatever permanent settlements you have. The power of a strong Core can withstand even a grandmaster cultivator."

"I'm sure Annette can review if we have any unique resources that would be helpful in the endeavor."

The rest of dinner passed with less heavy topics, though the jovial air was slightly dampened.

"What happened to the visitor," Laurel asked as the kids trailed out of the room at the end of dinner.

"The dungeon is a dangerous place, Madam Stormblade. Without preparation and good fortune, not all make it out."

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