Esther placed most of the beans into long term storage and set about preserving the cabbage by chopping and freezing it. She hummed happily and insisted on Hector drinking a celebratory glass of apple juice with her. The juice was sour and slightly off. She'd added mundane sugar to conceal some of the unpleasantness, but it didn't do a great job.

Hector cultivated chaos while watching her work and sipping the beverage he never asked for. "What are you doing with the eggs?"

"I have plans for those beauties. I want to do an omelet auction every day until they run out. Highest bidder gets a single egg cooked with whatever mundane additions they prefer. The shells I'm going to grind up and include in a bone elixir as a calcium source." Esther grinned like a mad scientist as she plotted up her home brew elixir substitutes.

"What about the porcupine?"

"That's going into the freezer until Wayne can figure out the method of making gold elixirs."

He received two hundred thousand credits in compensation for the products along with a permanent ten percent discount at the cafe. He didn't keep the money in his account since he still had the five hundred thousand from the Eden campaign. He instead prepaid the lease on his room for an entire year.

While he performed another multi-week marathon of cultivation, Hector researched sources of firewood. What he found proved quite disappointing. Strict environmental regulations and alternative technologies made it so that no one was selling firewood. Actually, there was very little of any type of wood being sold. The Alfar, even the ones born and bred right there on Union Central, loved their forests something fierce. Hector didn't want to chop down fresh wood when his farmer friends would be expecting aged firewood. Which seemed to indicate he would need to buy antique furniture.

When he mentioned this annoyance to Esther, she raised a finger into the air and shared her wisdom on matters of business. "Every inconvenience you encounter is an opportunity in disguise."

"Thanks for the pep talk," he said.

Esther wasn't done, though. "Travel to another world to get the firewood."

"That's an unnecessary step."

"It's an opportunity! Pay in gold. Unempowered worlds are suckers for gold."

"Gold?" Hector frowned. "Are you saying it's not expensive here?"

"Jinn harvest meteors. It makes precious metals cheap. You could afford to buy your body weight in gold if you wanted to. Just bring a single bar of gold to some backwater world and you'll get enough local currency to buy whatever you want."

A couple of days later she learned he purchased a gold bar.

"You bought a whole bar! A couple pieces of jewelry might have been enough for wood!"

Hector laughed at her conniption. "It was only ten thousand credits. And you were the one who told me to buy it."

"If you don't drive harder bargains, I'm going to think poorly of your mercantile instincts."

Though that threat didn't bother Hector, he decided it would be best not to explain his actual plan for the gold bar. Esther didn't think much of charity. She subscribed too much to the 'capitalism fixes everything' philosophy to ever approve of voluntarily handing out money to people who didn't work for it.

Her kindnesses, while many, tended to be of the "scratch my back and I'll scratch your back" variety. She got Hector a nice deal on housing – which earned her a commission. She gave Riley a job at the cafe – and proceeded to have the eager young woman cover all the most undesirable shifts. She arranged community events – which she enjoyed more than anyone else. She participated in the Aes Reconquest – for purely mercenary reasons.

It was a problematic stance for Hector. Esther did good things, which was certainly better than the alternative, but she did so out of a form of enlightened self interest. With the words of Liam the farmer still rattling around in his brain, he didn't know that he could endorse a goodness rooted in reciprocity.

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Especially after his experience with the Strigoi Mila. She'd been a disturbing combination of Hector's obsessive task focus and Esther's sensibilities. Seeing the twisted reflection of his own nature in the mirror of another human's actions had been rough.

Once more, he thought back to the example of his father. Terry Thoreaux wasn't a good man because of the benefits it brought to him. He simply was a good man. His moral actions flowed naturally from who he was as a person. Hector knew that he wasn't naturally gifted in that area. He tended to be inconsiderate of other people whenever they proved inconvenient to his goals. His cultivation of virtues was supposed to correct those flaws before gaining the power of a Xian lord magnified them to a degree that could harm innocent bystanders.

Yet that practice of morality was a path he'd trail-blazed without any great understanding of human psychology, moral philosophy, or human spirituality. The only thing that informed his efforts was a lifetime of physical exercise. He presumed that 'getting reps' on moral behaviors would strengthen the moral muscles. Hector didn't know if his efforts were fruitful or time wasted. Even if they were having the desired effect, he suspected that they wouldn't work for everyone.

One thing he felt certain of… Esther's outlook on life would be poison to the person he wanted to become. Transactional and selfish in a way that made it possible to feel righteous. Outwardly, she was so close to everything he'd want in a partner. Successful, driven, intelligent, beautiful, outgoing, warm, playful, and incredibly fit. Maybe it was a touch of narcissism for him to be attracted to a woman who had so many of the same behavioral traits as him. Definitely it was bad news for the journey he was on to improve as a person.

It took him three weeks to reach the peak of the fifth level. Then it took about five minutes of straining to raise himself to the next level. Unlike previous advancements, this one actually left Hector unconscious for a few minutes. Blinking as he came awake, Hector reflected on how different things had been for Volithur. The very first level, in the cosmic chamber of the Evergreen Institute, had knocked his dream counterpart unconscious for about half an hour. In comparison, Hector hardly registered his first advancement. If he recalled correctly, he immediately got up to grab a sandwich.

Subsequent advancements hadn't been quite so nonchalant for Hector, but they never approached the degree of drama he associated with Volithur. That boy had essentially fainted every damn time. And it only got worse the higher he rose. Though Volithur's last couple of advancements happened under the influence of tremendous amounts of uncut spirits – drawing the line between 'fainting from the advancement' and 'passed out from the liquor' wasn't so easy.

What Hector couldn't deny was that this was the first time he didn't just have a momentary loss of concentration during the process. He was out. Unconscious. The soul quake had done a hard reset on him that he couldn't shrug off with a little gumption. He'd have to keep that in mind in the future. He might be made of sterner stuff than Volithur, but he still had his limits.

Following his advancement, Hector dragged Darius and Riley out for a fancy meal. Rather than an expensive restaurant, he chose the place the three of them used to eat breakfast before moving to Tian Tower, with the traditional foods of Old Town. They all eagerly ordered their old favorites: Hector had the fish stew, Riley got a mix of sauces on her rice and chicken, and Darius ordered far more than he could actually eat.

The three of them gorged themselves as they chatted, then moved to the underground arcade to play a couple of games. It was a strange situation in some ways. They fell back into familiar patterns from the past. At the same time, there were new dynamics at play. Most importantly, Darius and Riley had bonded in his absence. From time to time, Hector felt like he was out of phase with his friends. He was no longer the glue holding his friend group together.

Indeed, he'd surrendered his traditional roles by going to Eden. Riley looked to Darius more often than Hector when seeking approval in the tentative manner she used in social situations. Then Darius would use Riley's reactions to determine when he was being too harsh with his talk. Hector had a special relationship with each of them, but he realized that the two relied on each other more than on him. That was a beautiful thing, realizing his friends had formed their own relationship. It also left him feeling a little distant. He was half an outsider due not only the Eden campaign, but because he'd made it clear to them that he would continue fighting on behalf of humanity, becoming a transitory presence in their lives.

Their day out on the town ended with a trip to the Xian shop of Master Sirius. The man flinched when Hector, Darius, and Riley entered together. Though Sirius had body enhancement higher than theirs, both Hector and Darius were at the same overall level as him and carried themselves like the warriors they were. In comparison, Sirius was a merchant.

"I thought you knew better than to return here, Hector." Sirius looked distinctly uncomfortable as he spoke, squirming and clearing his throat multiple times. "Should he become aware of your brazen behavior, Lord Andrew might come to Union Central to personally express his displeasure."

"We want wine, shopkeeper." Hector decided that the virtue of respect didn't hold for this particular individual. Participating in human trafficking and supporting cannibalistic practices was a hard line for him.

"The price of wine has gone up," Sirius declared. "For yourself and these others as well."

Darius snorted. "What a shame we won't be able to afford the overpriced resources of this man. I suppose we will need to rely upon your ability to travel directly to Tian, Hector."

After a tense moment, Sirius gestured towards the street. "I insist that you leave now. Do not return. I'm issuing a trespass notice."

After a moment, the System reacted to the words.

Trespass notice. You must depart the property and not return. Comply within one minute.

Hector smiled at the shopkeeper. "We just wanted to let you know why your sales numbers are about to drop dramatically, Sirius."

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