Li Mei had been hoping to remain fotten iermath of Boko’s destru. When Boko’s popution had beehrough a portal to somewhere, most of the non-residents who had been iy were sent to Greenstone. Blending in with them, she had been trying to find anyone who had used a rec crystal during the events.

  Li Mei herself had done so, pulling o as Jason’s power carried her out of the city after he was attacked. She had been far from alone and had mao buy copies of recs made by other evacuees. She had a feeling that, if she really did return to Earth, information about Jason Asano would be a richer currency than spirit s.

  Her recs were takehe Adventure Society caught up with her. That was the beginning of what they insisted several times was not an interrogation. They met her requests to leave with a strong suggestion that it would be an uhy decision for her.

  The questioning happened in a bnk room, sitting across from a pair of bnk-faced Adventure Society iigators. One was a man and the other a woman, Glen and Glennis. Their bnd sameness made them seem like brother and sister from a family of career bureaucrats. Even their skin tone was a match for the beige walls.

  At first it was the same questions, over and over. What happened when Jason was attacked. Every detail, again and again. What the attacker looked like. What his equipment looked like. What his aura felt like. What did he say?

  “I told you, I don’t know what he said. Which means he probably wasn’t a local. I learn nguages very quickly. It’s one of my abilities. I learn a region’s nguages and dialects in about an hour of people watg at the town market. Which I did here, ione, even down in Hornis. I don’t know the nguage he used, so I don’t think he was from around here.”

  The questions started shifting away from the events iion and towards Jason in general. It started obliquely, but it was obvious they were edging towards something else. She stonewalled, pushing ba the relevance of their questions while trying to figure out what they were after. They were starting to get pushy when a dark figure rose from her shadow.

  “That is as far as Mr Asano will allow you to take this,” the shadow creature said. “Miss Li will be leaving now.”

  “You’re his familiar,” said Glen, the male iigator.

  “I am. You may address me as Shade. It is a mononym.”

  “What we do with witnesses is not for Jason Asano to decide,” Glennis said. “It’s certainly not for him to send his familiar with instrus for us. If he wants to e down here and say something, he .”

  “If that is what you wish,” Shade said. “Mr Asano will e here and deal with you personally.”

  “Uh…” Glen said, throwing g Glennis.

  “Well, I mean, he ’t,” Glennis said. “Not here, here. This se of the building is dimensionally warded. He’ll have to go to administration and talk to…”

  She trailed off as an obsidian archway rose from the floor.

  “That’s a portal arch, right?” Glen said.

  “It’s his portal arch,” Glennis responded.

  “How he open a portal in here?”

  “He ’t. I don’t think.”

  “He doesn’t seem to agree. How strong is that dimensional warding?”

  The pair looked at the empty arch.

  “Probably not that strong,” Glennis said. “This isn’t the high security wing, and you know how barren the magic is in this city. Apparently not strong enough to stop a gold ranker. Or whatever Asano is.”

  “Given that his respoo being assassinated was to turn into a bird and kill an army, I don’t imagine some moderate anti-portal magic is going to stop him.”

  The empty arched fred to life, filling with shadowy energy, roiliically. Glen turo look at Shade.

  “When you said he was going to ‘deal with us,’ what exactly did you mean?”

  Jason stepped out of the shadowy arch. He smiled and grabbed Glen’s hand to shake it, despite it not being offered.

  “Mr Costling. I appreciate the diligence you and your cousin have shown in yorous iigation of st week’s events. Unfortunately, I now o take Miss Li with me. But again, I appreciate your diligence.”

  “We ’t just…”

  Glennis’ words trailed off as Jason turo look directly at her. His expression had a friendly smile and kind eyes, yet it left the hair on her arms standing on end. He held her gaze for a long, silent moment before breaking eye tact before turning back to Li Mei.

  “Through the portal, Miss Li. If you would.”

  ***

  Li Mei emerged from the portal into what had to be Jason’s famous cloud building. She looked up and down the hall while Jasoed the portal and it closed behind him. They were in a tunnel of fog, circur and wispy, with sky blue carpet running along the floor. There were clear patches, like windows, that could be seen through, and she moved to the closest one.

  her wind nor sea spray came through what looked like a hole in the wall, despite a raging o outside. Waves pounded against the walls of fairytale cloud castles, floating on the opehe fluffy white buildings didn’t budge, in spite of the ing waters crashing into the walls. At water level, the buildings were ected by a flooded yer of ft cloud. Passage between the castles was achieved through a series of eg sky bridges, one of which they currently occupied.

  “Where are we?”

  “I set up my cloud pace offshore from Greenstone. You see it from the city if you fly over it.”

  She could hear musiing from down the hall and Jason made an invitiure in that dire.

  “Is that… Gloria Estefan?”

  Jason led her dowunnel and inte room. It looked something like an open pn loft, id out into ses. The furniture was a mix of the dense cloud substand more traditional materials like wood and marble. The rgest areas had multiple couches and armchairs, enough for a dozen people. They were arrayed around a rge square coffee table, currently covered in notebooks and loose papers.

  The music was ing from that area, a rec crystal proje of Miami Sound Mae floating below the high ceiling. The man and woman talking as they went over the notes oable has the shimmer of a privacy s around them, probably to dampen the noise right over their heads.

  There was a long dining table in another area, also occupied by two people. One was a staggeringly beautiful woman, even by gold rank standards, with copper hair and eyes that marked her as a celestine. She was sharing a sandwich the length of her arm with a husky elf in what looked like an ugly Christmas sweater.

  Multiple tables were tral to a third area, where most of the people were. The tables had what looked like bames from Earth, and she watched Jason groan at the result of a dice role.

  “This is why I hate dice-based bat. You do everything right and still get gutted like a fish.”

  The st area was the kit, where two people were dang to the music as they made food. Alongside Jason was a woman Li Mei reised, Farrah Hurin. Li Mei looked from the Jason pying a game to the Jason cooking and dang to the Jason standing beside her in the doorway.

  “The cloud pace is my domain,” he said. “I express more of my power here.”

  “Whie is the real you?”

  “None of them. This body is the closest, though. The others ’t leave here.”

  She stared at him for a moment, the back at the group ughing and enjoying one another’s pany.

  “I don’t wish to be indelicate,” she said, “but you’re having a party?”

  “You’re w why we’re celebrating when so many people just died.”

  “I am.”

  He nodded and led her over to the lounge area. He o the man and woman in their privacy s and cimed a couch. Li Mei joined him, leaving a space betweehe air shimmered around them and the music was reduced to a muffled background noise.

  “I ’t speak for you,” he said, “but everyone else in this room has mourhose they failed to save. Too many times, and there will be too many more. We’ve had days to be maudlin, and we were. But we also have to pick ourselves up and try to save the people who fall into danger. If we let it grind us down… well, you’re from Earth. You saw what I was like. At the end of my time there.”

  “I did.”

  “That is not a good pce to be. If I had the power I had now, but was in the mental state I was then, the people here would hunt me down. And they would be right to do so. We’re powerful enough now that we ’t afford to be unstable. We do too much damage. So, we have to take care of ourselves, mind, body and soul.”

  He looked around the room with a smile.

  “And we o take the wins where we get them,” he tinued. “Yes, a city was lost. The social and eic ramifications of that will be ti wide and linger for decades. A home for housand, and a regional ey, gone in minutes. For many, they lost everything they ever knew. But something like y-eight pert of the popution got out alive. The messengers sent an army, but we had zero batant casualties and a civilian survival rate that is astounding, given how suddenly it all happened.”

  He gave her a sad smile.

  “It’s easy to dwell on our failures, be we o celebrate what we aplished as well. We’re not going to be dang around in front of the people who lost family, friends and homes. But here, when it’s just us? We were sad yesterday and we be sad again tomorrow. Today, we’re going to be happy. Now, let’s get something to eat.”

  ***

  I, Farrah gnced over at Jason’s prime avatar chatting with Li Mei.

  “She’s pretty,” she observed to the avatar cooking with her.

  “I’m aware,” Jason said.

  “How aware?”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “Yht her in here.”

  “She’s from Earth.”

  “We found her while looking for someone doing sketchy stuff, Jason. And it was her. She was doing the sketchy stuff.”

  “We’ve done worse. If I look back at when I came to this world, there were challenges, yes. But in a lot of ways, it bent over backwards to give me the opportunities I o get where I am now. She arrived with little knowledge, little training and already dosed up on monster cores, so no one was going to help her ge that. She didn’t have you, Rufus and Gary to put her on a right path. That she’s mao self-start like this? Work towards earning the cores to actually reach gold rank on her own?”

  “She maniputed people. Fomerouble amongst those who already have a history of doing terrible things.”

  “I’ve maniputed people too. Hurt people. Killed people. Out of pride and vanity. Tant to look for a better way. If I five myself for that much, I five her for less. If we give her better opportunities, I think she’ll do better. Be better. It worked on me.”

  “You know a didn’t send someone who looks like her to you by act. Just because you didn’t fall into the horap then, it doesn’t mean you won’t now.”

  “That was almost twenty years ago.”

  “And she looks exactly the same.”

  “There’s no horap here.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “There’s no point to a horap. We’re gold rank. Everyone we meet is crazy hot.”

  “You’re saying that she’s crazy hot?”

  “Of course she is. Denying it would be stupid.”

  “Well, there you go.”

  “No, I don’t go. There’s no going.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Stop that.”

  “I’m just saying.”

  “I know what you’re saying.”

  “That your judgement isn’t always the best.”

  “My judgement is fine. You’re ag like I’m James Bonding my way across Pallimustus.”

  “There was that time you went off to ‘train your aura’ by sleazing on women.”

  “I was not sleazing on women. And that’s a legitimate way to practise aura refi. Using teiques I learned from the little bck book of sex magic that you gave me, by the way.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Will you stop saying that?”

  “She’s very pretty.”

  “Go back to chopping yetables.”

  ***

  The tial cil’s chief ior reminded Jason of Rufus, with his dark skin, bald head and looks that stood out, even at gold rank.

  “Chief Ior Krensler,” Jasoed him, shaking his hand.

  They were standing in one of the Greenstone Adventure Society’s marshalling yards.

  “Are you ready, Chief Ior?”

  “I am.”

  Jason opened a portal to his soul realm and they stepped through. Oher side was the ft roof of a tower made from sandstone brid green sto was the highest point of the city that now housed the popution of Boko, an impressive view. The same struaterials could be seen all over, dotted with water features and painted with greenery. Artificial waterfalls spilled out of buildings as much as five storeys up, spshing into palm groves and garden-lireets. The buildings themselves were rown with lush, leafy vines.

  “Where did ay city like this e from?” Krensler asked.

  “I made it.”

  Krensler looked at him, then back out over the city.

  “When?”

  “A few days ago, when it was needed.”

  “Just like that?”

  “You stand in the heart of my domain, Chief Ior. Surely you’ve heard about astral kingdoms, and the fact that I have ohe power your iigators are so curious about es from here.”

  “As best we tell, that celestial phoenix creature dispyed god level power. Rising to wipe out the messengers like that was, for all is and purposes, a miracle.”

  “Is that so?” Jason said nonittally not turning his gaze from the city below.

  “We aren’t officially enting on your identity in this, but ah any es will find out easily enough.”

  “I appreciate the society’s discretion.”

  “There is the opeion of where that power came from.”

  “I just told you, Chief Ior. You’re standing in it. This pocket universe is the soury power.”

  “We don’t know a lot about astral kingdoms. We do know they are what the messenger leadership has, which raises more questions about your possession of one. We’d like to know a lot more.”

  “I imagine you would, but I have no i in advertising any potential strengths and weaknesses.”

  “You do have weakhen.”

  “What is the Adventure Society’s stane going to be?”

  “The star ranking system gets a little unclear at gold rank. Gold rankers are more autonomous, with missions being handed out by liaisons more often than being posted in the Jobs Hall. There’s often an urgency to gold-rank missions not reflected in most of lower-rank. Even so, the star ranking system is still in effect. A gold will often gh a jobs hall and clear out the older tracts that no one else was taking. We like it when they do that, but they o adhere to their star ranking. Few gold rankers are oar. Two or three is the norm, as most who reach that point are already experienced in delicate affairs.”

  “I imagine I’ll be getting three stars? I know my diplomaeeds work, but I deal with kings and diamond-rankers a lot. Things above them, too, but that’s more my thing. The society just gets in the way at that point, which I suppose is where most of our problems start.”

  “We’ve noticed,” Krensler said wryly. Jason snorted a ugh.

  “To be ho, Mr Asano, there has been a debate as to whether you even belong on the roster. The goodwill you’ve earned since your return has done a lot to swing things your way. Your team’s efforts in following society directives in your strikes against the messengers have beely appreciated. And now it seems that you’ve removed something like a quarter of the world’s messenger forces, liberating tless regions in the process. I want you to know that we aren’t overlooking that and just grubbing after the power you dispyed in Boko.”

  “Good to know. But I’m guessing a lot of powerful people are nervous about what happens when I’m not being such a good boy.”

  “They are. You disappeared a city full of people into the same hole as all those departed messengers.”

  “The messengers are on a separate p.”

  “A lot of iial people have questions. What is happening with those messengers? When will you return the people of Boko?”

  “That’s why we’re here, Chef Ior. For you to talk with the people of Boko. They’re free to e and go as they please.”

  “It’s more plicated than that.”

  “Isn’t it always?”

  Kreook out a small box and ha to Jason. Jason ope to find a new Adventure Society badge, gold, but with a diamond symbol where there would normally be owo or three stars.

  “We’ve decided to treat you by diamond-ranker rules. You’ve been ag like one for long enough, and it might cover some of the issues we keep having when iing with you. Soramir Rimaros suggested this, back when. We resisted when you were silver rank, but yold now. More importantly, we’ve been informed that the diamond-rank unity has more or less accepted you. It seems foolish to resist, at this stage.”

  “What are the diamond-rank rules?”

  “Simir to gold rank, but with what amounts to full autonomy. If you tell us to pay attention to something, we do. And when the big stuff happens, there is an expectation that you will step forward. If you o be reined in, it won’t be us ing for you, it’ll be diamond rankers.”

  “You said there was a suggestion of removing my membership?”

  “There was.”

  Jason ran his fingers gently over the badge.

  “Thank you, Chief Ior. I know that I haven’t always been the easiest member to deal with, but my identity as an adventurer is extremely important to me. I’ve been through a lot, and e close to losing myself more than once. Being an adventurer was always an important anchor for me.”

  “I’m gd to hear that.”

  Jason put the lid ba the box and put it in his iory.

  “Well,” he said. “Let’s go meet the Duke of Boko and talk about when the popution will be leaving.”

  “Looking at this pce, I’m not sure they’ll want to.”

  “I did my best, Chief Ior. But I ever repce what they lost.”

  “No, I suppose not.”