After returning to the riverboat with the rescued spider victims, Chang-li and Joshi had handed them off to the boatmen. Then, they enjoyed a quiet night's rest. Chang-li was interested in seeing what sort of natural treasure the spider queen had offered up, but neither he nor Joshi were skilled in the art of assessing those. Perhaps they'd find an official in Dragon's Tooth City who knew better.

The next two days' voyage upriver was uneventful. Around noon the third day, as the midday sun cast long rippling glimmers across the river, they were traveling up a narrow gorge. The water ran swiftly here. They rounded a bend, and a wall loomed in front of them. Passengers on the boat exclaimed, and the boatmen chuckled knowingly.

"Welcome to Dragon's Tooth," one of the boatmen called. "We'll dock here at the foot of the dam."

The wall was at least 300 feet tall, made of smooth stone, blocking off the river. Water churned out from spillways on either side. The boatmen pulled the barge to a narrow dock carved into the side of the cliff, tying it up and shooing everyone off onto the rocky scarp. There, they made their way to an opening carved into the cliff itself. Dock workers met them, pointing them to a tunnel lit by lanterns and then a stair leading upward.

"Well?" Chang-li asked.

Joshi shrugged. "We're both nearly out of lux. If we can't refill our cores here, then we'll have to consider altering our itinerary. I don't want to go looking for a lost sect's destroyed headquarters without plenty of lux."

"Yes," Chang-li agreed. "But let's not delay longer than we have to." It had been the right thing to do, stopping the spider outbreak and saving people, but he hadn't expected to be this drained at this stage of his journey. It was absolutely critical that they both refill their cores. Plus, it had been several days since he'd had a chance to cycle in a high-lux environment, and he was feeling that lack like he'd just spent several days bedridden and was now dealing with weakened muscles.

Chang-li and Joshi followed the other passengers up the steep steps. Every now and then, the stair turned, and on the landings, there would be a window opening out of the rock face to the river below, letting in light and air. The climb seemed to take forever.

The stair entrance emerged from an opening set flat in the ground, surrounded by stone paving. They stumbled out and looked around. The city itself stood on the shore of the lake, perhaps a quarter mile off from this entrance. To their left curved the bulwark of the great dam, holding back who knew how much water. Chang-li stared in awe until Joshi elbowed him in the ribs.

"Come on, I see a cultivation official there."

A handful of city officials were waiting for them at the top. Chang-li immediately relaxed as the scribes bustled around, asking everyone's business and helping them fill out permits. He and Joshi presented themselves to the cultivation official, Magistrate Noor, showing their licenses. The official looked it over, her eyebrows raising as she saw the number of commendations for each of them.

"We are honored to have you in our city, young master," she said politely. "But you travel alone? No spouse, no sect?"

"This is our training journey," Chang-li explained. "We are seeking to reach the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, then return to our sect."

"I see," the magistrate said, checking things off. "Young Master Joshi, you are unmarried then?"

"But betrothed," Chang-li added quickly, as the official frowned more deeply at Joshi's license. "To an indigo princess," he added.

The magistrate jerked in surprise, then looked Joshi over with renewed interest. "The town has accommodations suitable for cultivators such as yourself," the magistrate said, bowing. "I will take you there myself. The finest wines and meats will be yours. Tomorrow, once you have rested, you may enter the repository and gather lux."

Chang-li shook his head. "We're in a hurry. We wish to begin refilling our cores at once. We have no need for any of your fine hospitality. Thank you."

"But how can the empire show what we owe cultivators without it?" the woman asked, a worried expression on her face. She seemed uneasy, shifting her weight foot to foot.

Now Chang-li's interest was piqued. "We're going to head there at once. Unless, of course, there's some reason why we shouldn't."

"Ah, I'll escort you myself," the woman said hurriedly. "Just let me go along."

"We hardly need an escort," Chang-li said. "Just the chits."

"Oh, but the building, it's being cleaned and repaired. I will order our crews to remove themselves at once so that you may cultivate in peace."

"We won't disturb them," Joshi interrupted, his deep voice rumbling. The woman started. She looked like a terrified rabbit.

"This is most unusual. I'll have to consult my logs for—"

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Chang-li crossed his arms. "How is it unusual for a cultivator to seek access to a repository?"

"Well, we just didn't expect... we haven't had anyone along in some time," the magistrate managed.

Chang-li's scribe instincts were flaring. "We certainly won't get in their way. We just need to cycle and we'll be gone."

The magistrate seemed at last to give up, deflating and looking as though she'd been hit hard. "Yes, thank you, certainly, young masters. Ah, here." She scrawled in her books, ripped out a slip of paper stating their names and that they were entering Dragon's Tooth Lux Repository, and scurried off toward the town.

"What do you think that was about?" Joshi asked.

"She looked like a master scribe, two minutes after the auditors arrive," Chang-li replied. "Something's funny here. Hang on, before we go there, I'm going to have a word with our Brotherhood friends." He spotted them dealing with an ordinary functionary. When they had finished, he intercepted them before they could head for the city. Each of them bowed.

"Elder brother, what can we do for you?"

For once, he ignored the polite address rather than correcting it. "I'm suspicious about the cultivator officials here. I suspect they're hiding something. I don't know how, but if you were able to make contact with other Brotherhood people here in town and ask around, you might learn something interesting."

Their eyes widened. The leader of the three nodded. "Thank you, elder brother. We shall certainly do that and report back what we find to the Brotherhood in Vardin City."

Chang-li nodded. If there was something odd going around, Min would have a better idea what to do with it than he did. He wasn't part of the bureaucracy, not anymore, but he didn't like things out of order either.

They shouldered their packs, Chang-li somewhat regretting bringing quite so many scrolls from Varden City, and set off, crossing the wide top of the dam. The water below looked deceptively placid. Somewhere were tunnels carrying the water down into the river below.

"I've never been to a repository before, but I know this one captures the river's ferocity and uses it to collect lux," Chang-li said. "That's how it's able to provide lux for cultivators without being a true tower. They're self-regulated. This repository would have a cultivation lux density suitable for people at the Peak of Bodily Refinement, perhaps Peak of Mental Refinement." He expected to find it a bit weak for him, but he'd manage.

Chang-li and Joshi headed for the tower. Outside the gates stood a pair of men guards dressed in the colors of Riceflower Province. Neither was a cultivator. They looked nervous as they stepped forward.

"Do you have a chit showing you're permitted to enter?"

Chang-li held out the form the woman had given them. They looked it over suspiciously.

"Oh, you're missing a seal here. You'll need to go back and get that from Magistrate Noor. She closes up her offices early in the afternoon, so you'll have to hurry."

Chang-li took a step forward, crossed his arms. "If your masters have made a paperwork mistake, they will be the ones to correct it. We are licensed cultivators here to replenish our luxes that we have depleted in the service of the empire. You will allow us to pass." He focused his will on them. He didn't want to terrify them with his power; he wanted them to believe that he meant what he said. He was part of this empire, and the contract between him and the emperor, as expressed in his red-backed license, gave him permission to be here. These men were standing in his way without any real authority to do so. He focused on that, imagining his will as an extension of his presence. Was this what Noren was talking about, forming his Intent and using that to guide his will?

For a moment, the two men seemed to waver. Then they broke, fleeing back toward the city. Chang-li sighed and relaxed his will. "That wasn't what I meant to do."

"It was effective," Joshi said. "Let's go."

The place was a squat, rounded building with a flat top, a cylinder about 12 feet high, uniformly a drab brown exterior with only the entrance to mar the monotony from its curved walls. Chang-li guessed it was about 50 feet across. Spacious, but nothing compared to a tower.

From what he'd read about lux respositories, the principle was simple enough. Lux engineers harnessed a natural feature with a strong lux reservoir. In this case, the Dragon Spine River flowing down from the wild mountains into more civilized lands. The repositories would harvest that naturally occurring lux and store it for cultivators in need. That also had the effect of reducing wild lux in the region to a level safe for ordinary humans. They didn't crack Lumos into lux the way towers did, and so they shouldn't be dangerous in any way.

They approached the door. Compared to the rest of the structure, it was ornate—a wooden portal about five feet tall and three feet wide with a handle set in the middle. The portal was carved with geometric designs and painted dark green. If it was supposed to mean something, Chang-li didn't recognize the significance. He grabbed the handle and pushed. Nothing happened, so he pulled. The door came slowly, then faster, swinging open toward them. The space beyond was dark. He and Joshi exchanged a glance, then ducked under the low lintel and into the repository.

As they stepped inside, light flooded the room, a gentle, yellowish hue like sunlight. The door squeaked closed behind them, falling shut on its own. Chang-li checked. The outline of the door was there, easy to spot. He relaxed and began cycling. The lux density here was higher than he'd anticipated. A comfortable density compared to what he'd become used to over the past months. He pulled lux into his core and began purifying it, cycling the physical and spiritual luxes on the two different sides of his body in his Breath of the Heaven's pattern while feeling Joshi drop into Way of Boulders beside him.

It looked exactly like the bland building Chang-li had anticipated from the outside. They stood in a corridor that seemed to run the length of the building. It disappeared off in the distance, and Chang-li thought he could make out the other wall. The corridor was about 10 feet wide with beige painted walls and openings in the side every couple of feet.

With nothing better to do, Chang-li strode forward. He peered into the first room. It was a small cell with a sleeping mat and a pot in the corner, white with a delicate yellow pattern on it, a little fancy and oddly shaped for a chamber pot. The next room along was the same. So these were quarters for cultivators, the expectation being that they might have to remain here for some hours or overnight to refill their lux levels. Nothing unusual.

As Chang-li pulled his head back out of the second room, he thought he heard a sound farther along. Musical, like wind chimes.

"Did you hear that?"

"I did," Joshi replied grimly.

Chang-li cleared his throat. "Shall we investigate?"

"We may as well. I can do that and cycle at the same time." Joshi strode forward, Magen bobbing along at his shoulder. "Watch our backs," Joshi told the lux creature aloud for Chang-li's benefit, and Magen dropped back.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.