Lord Zara insisted he change clothes immediately. Hector, way too old to feel uncomfortable in his own body, felt uncomfortable anyway. He could not get a read on the level ten woman he now worked for. She snapped her fingers impatiently, not wanting to waste her time with unnecessary delays. She also gave the impression of being moderately annoyed with him in general. Yet she showed far too much interest in the show that was Hector's wardrobe change.

Unwilling to reveal how disturbed he was by the attention of a woman who could casually tear him apart, Hector got dressed as quickly as he could without looking like he was rushing. The entire time, he wondered what the hell was going on. Was the old boss and mentor of Volithur checking him out? That thought confused him enough that he didn't even worry about the fact that he was being sexually harassed by his employer.

"You look exactly like a foreign interloper trying to sneak into Stein." Lord Zara studied him from multiple angles. "We will have to hope that your nature isn't quite so obvious from a distance."

Hector frowned. "Don't I have to get up close to people anyway? I need to ask questions about old royal properties and interrogate tea merchants, right? Those are the only clues you've provided me."

Dorian cleared his throat. "It's said to taste sour."

Zara snapped her fingers. "Yes. The Mother Elixir was always reported to be sour."

"Great. If someone hands me a miracle level ten elixir and it tastes sour, I'll know I found it."

Fortunately, she did not take exception to his sarcasm. "Are you ready to travel or do you need to rest first? Keep in mind you will be entering hostile territory."

Hector took quick stock of himself. He was down to about fifteen percent energy reserves. That was not at all sufficient preparation for a fight. "I need some time to restore myself. Do you have any wine?"

"I have wine," Lord Zara said, emphasis on the 'I'.

"You're not going to share, though."

"Perhaps my circumstances have eluded your powers of observation. I am not rich, Hector. When I advanced, my father insisted I make my own way in the world. The wealth I accumulated for the Shaocheth family did not come with me. I had to take travel contracts to earn my living. Even after setting up a small estate, my finances are far from secure. I still spend more time working than I do cultivating. That is a worrying trend. I need to be growing stronger to defend myself from rival lords, not making deliveries."

Hector shook his head. "Sorry. That's not right of him. I know you built the wealth that let the Lord General become who he is. He should support you financially in turn as you transition to independence."

"It may not be generous towards me, but my father has the right to do as he pleases."

"No," Hector disagreed. "Back on my world, there were fathers who kicked their children out of the house as soon as they reached adult age. Those guys were pieces of shit. My dad used to fight me for the right to pay the restaurant bill even when he was on a fixed income and I was doing very well for myself. Up until he died, he'd put money in a card for every birthday and holiday. That's how a father is supposed to treat his kids."

"I intend no insult, Hector, but your father was a nobody. Mine is the Lord General."

"Don't accept that you deserved to be cut off." Hector tried to reel in some of the heat in his words. He didn't really care about the Lord General or how Lord Zara was treated. He didn't even care so much about the morality of the situation. What bothered him was the fact that he was never going to see his own father again. How that translated to being upset with the Lord General's terrible parental instincts he wasn't sure, but it did.

"Hector is free with his soft foreign opinions," Dorian explained. "He wasn't like this back when he was pretending to be an ignorant rogue to rip off Lord Andrew and the Lord Platinum."

"Did you like my bow?" Hector swept an exaggerated stage bow.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Dorian laughed. "I will admit it was an effective deception. It grated on all of us."

Lord Zara led them to a modest dining room, with a table that could seat no more than twenty. That made it excessively large by Promise City standards. It was criminally undersized for a Xian lord. A single servant brought them rice porridge bowls with toppings of shredded ham, pickled vegetables, and fresh greens.

"The humble meal is actually more to do with my personal preferences than my financial condition," Zara informed them after a few minutes of quiet eating. "I grew up the daughter of a soldier and a merchant, so my tastes remain simple. I don't care for elaborate productions. As for the portion sizes, advancing to the peak of Amaratti society has not so far relieved me of concerns about the state of my figure."

Hector glanced at the lord, trying to estimate the figure hidden beneath a loose tunic. He caught himself before his gaze could linger. "Most Xian are quite petite in my experience."

"Large bodies require more resources to enhance and maintain," Zara said.

When the humble meal ended, Hector was shown to a room where he cultivated for several hours. They didn't guard him during the downtime, making it clear in advance that Riley was the one they were watching. He slept, woke early, and cultivated until Lord Zara came for him.

"I'm going to take you to Rags now. I have deliveries to make." She grimaced as she mentioned her job.

"Are your customers comfortable hiring a lord for work?"

Zara smiled. "The type of customer who hires a lord as a porter does not mind."

Her words piqued his curiosity. "Why is that?"

"Because a lord can protect valuable resources in transit. A porter of your level would never be trusted with the transport of high end elixirs. You would either be robbed by someone stronger or disappear with the goods."

A grim smile came to his face. "You work for Platinum."

"She is one of my clients." Zara's sphere rose into existence and they entered.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

"Because of who my father is? My hands may not be clean, Hector, but that does not mean I enjoy the dirt."

"Can I ask you a question without offending you?"

Zara sniffed. "I have ignored your inappropriateness this far, have I not?"

"My question involves memories of other times."

In the dark, he couldn't see Zara's reaction. Judging by the length of her silence, though, she had to think over her answer. "I do not hold you accountable for whatever you witnessed through his eyes. Should you speak poorly of my son Corey… well, you should not do so."

"I would not do that. Corey was one of the few truly good people I remember from that other life. It was a tragedy that he was caught up in the ugliness."

"Thank you for the kind words. He was quite precious to me."

"My question… baby Darius was castrated…."

"Not by my order, Hector." Zara's voice held a great weariness. "I wanted to kill Harridan with my own hands. Failing that, I wanted to be there when he died. Abusing a young child should never have happened. I don't often criticize my father, but that was wrong. The baby was a Shaocheth by blood. Truly it was an unnecessary cruelty."

Hector swallowed. "I'm glad to hear that. I never had any children of my own, Lord Zara. I only ever had the one from my dreams." The child become man who was one of his closest friends. The eunuch who likely would never overcome the pain of his past.

"It's quite a world we live in, is it not? Vengeance begets vengeance until happiness dies."

"That's not how I do things," he said.

"Nor I. But we don't get to decide how things work."

"You're a lord. Some day I will be as well."

Zara's voice held the hint of a smile in the darkness. "Hector, an adventurous man like you is unlikely to live long enough to become a lord."

"If you say so," he said.

"And do try to survive this adventure. I don't want your death on my conscience." The weld of her sphere began to open. "When the opening is large enough, hop out and flee. I'm going to do something very impressive and reseal my transit sphere without dismissing it. Hopefully anyone in the area assumes this was only a departure and not an arrival."

Hector leaped through the opening once it was large enough. He found himself in the debris that remained of an old warehouse. Chill wind whipped at howled at him. Broken buildings and bleached skeletons dominated the scene. Behind him, the transit sphere shrank out of existence, leaving him alone with the quiet of a dead town.

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