The streets were quieter now, most shutters drawn against the winter wind, but Jiang barely noticed. Lin was safe with Old Nan – he'd returned her coin pouch and slipped in a dozen more silver, partially to help pay for a healer if she needed one, but mostly to assuage his guilt. It didn't help much.

Now that she was getting the help she needed, he was free to focus on the source of his fury. The Broker had known. He'd known where Jiang's family had gone, maybe even sold them himself – and still sent him running errands like some idiot dog. The thought of it made his hands curl into fists.

The fight at the Iron Dog Tavern had been… easy. He'd taken a few shallow cuts in the close confines of the building, and his Qi was running uncomfortably low, but he'd cut through the gang like a scythe through wheat. He had even tried Zhang's trick of flaring his Qi to intimidate them, and while it had made them hesitate, the effort had been a shocking drain on his reserves. It was a useful trick, certainly, but one he would need to practice. A problem for later. For now, the ease of his victory had bolstered his confidence. He felt the familiar, intoxicating hum of power under his skin. Most mortals, he was beginning to realise, were no longer a significant threat.

The Broker, however, was no street thug. Jiang doubted this would be a clean, straightforward fight.

He stalked down the narrow lane toward the tavern, his boots thumping against the icy cobbles. When he pushed through the door, the shift in the room was immediate. Last time he'd been here, the patrons had barely looked up from their drinks. Tonight, every eye flicked toward him and stayed there. A man at the nearest table stiffened; another suddenly found his mug fascinating. Quiet whispers hissed like wind through dry leaves.

Jiang caught the barkeep pretending not to see him, furiously wiping a glass that was already spotless. Sweat glistened at the man's temple despite the cold. The sight made Jiang's jaw clench. The Broker knew. Word had run ahead of him – someone must have slipped away from the Iron Dogs fast enough to send warning. In hindsight, he probably should have made sure no one could escape, but at the time, he'd been more concerned with getting to Lin.

Jiang didn't waste breath on questions or threats. He crossed the room in three strides. A chair scraped as someone shifted out of his path. The barkeep glanced up just long enough for their eyes to meet. Jiang didn't even break stride – at the end of the day, he didn't care about these people. He shoved through the kitchen door and yanked open the hidden door at the back of the small storage room.

He descended fast, taking the steps two at a time. The familiar smell of sandalwood and cedar greeted him, but unlike the last few times he'd been here, the chair behind the desk was pushed back, the air still and quiet. Nothing was out of place; it had the same unnerving tidiness as always, but it felt abandoned. Jiang swore under his breath, striding over to the door set into the back wall.

He didn't know for sure where it led, but he somewhat doubted the Broker was the type to enter his office through the rough-looking bar above, so it stood to reason this would lead to another entrance.

The door was locked, not that it was enough to stop him. He stepped back, braced his shoulder, and drove his weight into it with a short, sharp pulse of Qi. The wood groaned, and the lock splintered with a crack that echoed in the small office. The door swung inward into darkness.

He stepped through into a long, stone-lined passageway that sloped gently downward, stretching further than he could easily see. A sconce set into the wall by the entrance caught his attention – but instead of a torch, it held what looked like a stick with a milky-white crystal attached to the end. Jiang reached out and tapped the crystal curiously. It was cold and inert. He had no idea how it worked, so he left it, letting the faint light from the office behind him illuminate his path. His eyesight was keener than a mortal's; it was enough.

The air grew cooler as he descended, and the scent of stone and dust replaced the sandalwood of the office. It was as he was walking through the oppressive silence that a memory surfaced – the unseen cultivator that had scanned him the first time he had met the Broker must have been in this passage. He had been so focused on his anger that he hadn't considered the possibility of a guard. Or, rather, he hadn't considered the possibility of a cultivator guard.

Jiang paused for a moment, briefly considering. He was running on roughly a quarter of his Qi reserves after the fight and his reckless use of the suppression technique. It wasn't much. But his stealth technique was his most efficient art, and if it helped him either avoid a fight altogether or even just start one with the element of surprise, it was well worth the expenditure. He drew on his Qi, letting the familiar, muted sensation of his stealth settle over him like a second skin.

As he continued on, the walls of the passageway gradually changed, shifting from smaller bricks to giant stone blocks, each one large enough to come up to his waist. A few more meters later, the tunnel ended abruptly, opening into a space so vast it stole his breath.

He stood at the edge of a stone walkway, staring out into a cavernous darkness. It was a man-made space, that much was clear. Enormous, squared pillars, each one thicker than the oldest trees in his forest, rose from unseen depths all the way to the ceiling, which was high enough that an entire two-story building could have fitted with room to spare. He could hear the faint, rhythmic drip… drip… drip of water echoing from somewhere far away, the only noise to break the silence.

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Below the walkway, a surface of perfectly still, black water stretched out into the darkness, reflecting the faint light from the passage behind him in a distorted, wavering shimmer.

His first thought was that it was some kind of sewer, but the air was clean, free of the stench of waste. It was just… old. Ancient and empty. He had never seen or even imagined a space of this scale, let alone one hidden beneath a city. What possible purpose could it have? How long had it taken to build something like this?

Jiang shook off the thoughts, scanning the area. The walkway he was on clung to the wall, a narrow ribbon of stone that curved away into the gloom. There were other, similar paths visible across the vast expanse, connecting the massive pillars, but they were distant, isolated. Assuming that the Broker had indeed come this way, there was only one clear path he could have taken.

Jiang set off, boots whispering on the damp stone. The darkness was so oppressively quiet that even the faintest slap of his boots on the pathway seemed to carry like thunder. It was strange – pitch black should've blinded him, but while it was dim and difficult, he could still see. Edges blurred, shadows melted into each other, but the walkway, the pillars, the faint ripples on the water – they all stood out enough to follow.

He supposed it was thanks to his shadow affinity, and while he'd known he could see better in the darkness, he'd assumed that some light was required. Then again, maybe this was something every other cultivator could do – hopefully not, if only because it gave him an advantage down here.

The walkway curved gently. Pillars drifted past like sleeping giants, their reflections shivering in the black water below. The silence pressed against his ears until it felt alive. He kept his breath measured, bow held in one hand to eliminate the noise of it rubbing against his tunic.

A few minutes on, the path split into three. Jiang slowed, crouching slightly, trying to pick which way the Broker might have gone. The left tunnel angled upward slightly, rising further from the water as it disappeared into the gloom, the right sloped down towards a small opening in the wall, and the centre kept level.

He hesitated, torn. Even with his enhanced vision, it was still too dark to see any signs of passage. Not that bare stone would show much regardless, but still.

It was the silence that gave them away. A faint whisper, so quiet he almost dismissed it as a trick of the echoing water, drifted from somewhere to the left. It was barely audible, even to his cultivator senses, but in the oppressive stillness of the cistern, it may as well have been a shout. He couldn't make out the words, but it was enough.

He started down the left path, his movements as slow and deliberate as he could make them. The darkness was his only real cover here. The wide, open walkway was a killing ground, and he had to hope that whoever was up ahead couldn't see any better in the pitch black than a mortal. He briefly considered slipping off the path and into the water, but dismissed the idea almost immediately. It would be louder, and the perfectly still surface would carry the ripples of his movement like a shouted warning.

He pressed on as the whispers grew louder, coalescing into a quiet, irritated conversation.

"…waste of time… no light down here. We'd see anyone coming from ages away."

"Stop whining. We're paid to wait, so we wait. That's the job."

"This is beneath us," the first voice snapped, getting a little louder. "Dealing with some backwater information broker's problems. It's an insult. Fen, tell him."

Jiang froze, half-crouched in the middle of the path. Three of them. That… wasn't ideal.

"Be quiet, both of you," a third voice, a woman's, came after a moment of silence. "I thought I sensed something."

A single, frozen heartbeat of absolute stillness.

"Hells," the second voice swore.

A flash of light bloomed – sudden and violent. A fireball screamed across the darkness, its reflection blazing across the black water. Jiang threw himself backward, the heat kissing his cheek as it splashed harmlessly against the pillar behind him. He'd dodged because it hadn't been aimed directly at him – a probing attack. The flare of light had ruined his stealth, which made it a successful probing attack.

He landed in a crouch, his eyes already adjusted, and got his first look at them. Fifty paces away stood two men. One was young, his robes excessively fine for a place like this, his face a mask of arrogant annoyance. The other was a broad-shouldered, severe-looking man in plain, functional robes, his hand still outstretched from where he'd launched the fire. Jiang narrowed his eyes – this one felt more dangerous than the first.

But the third… the woman… she wasn't there.

A flicker of unease slid down Jiang's spine. He ducked and rolled backward on instinct – and a silver blade hissed through the space his neck had occupied. Water splashed onto the walkway as a figure materialised from nowhere, droplets collapsing off a vanishing film. The woman who appeared wore a faint scowl, water still dripping from her hair.

"Annoying," she muttered.

Jiang's bow was already up, an arrow notched – though he was somewhat wishing for a sword right about now. The walkway was narrow – too narrow to dodge if they pressed all at once. He could retreat backwards, of course, but probably not as fast as they could move forward.

The plainer man lifted a hand. Qi shimmered faintly around his fingers, and the bare flame that flickered above his hand grew a little brighter. "So then. It appears our time wasn't being wasted."

The statement seemed a little pointed, and the man in the fancy robes sneered.

Jiang's shadows flexed at his feet, stretching toward the pillars, pooling thick and restless. He felt the weight of his remaining Qi – low, concerningly so – but enough for a quick fight if he rationed it carefully. Unfortunately, he was getting the impression that would be easier said than done. He kept his voice flat. "Where is the Broker?"

The woman's lip curled. "Not here."

The fancy one snorted. "You'll find him if you live long enough. Which you won't."

The three cultivators began to move forward, spreading out as much as the walkway would allow. The arrogant one moved forward with deliberate swagger, the older man stayed back, flaring his flames brighter to provide lighting and charge an attack, and the woman vanished again as a thin layer of water shimmered around her.

Jiang adjusted his grip, every muscle coiled.

Well then.

This was going to be… interesting.

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