Chang-li cycled, gathering more lux into himself. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. Joshi had summoned his gauntlet, Li Jiya, her weapon. Out of the mist leapt forms. It took a moment for Chang-li to recognize them as other humans, cultivators at that, wearing the robes of the Golden Locks School. In the mist, they had seemed almost like inhuman beasts. Now they fell on Chang-li and his friends, eight of them, against the three.

  Chang-li didn't see Mai Wen. He recognized two of the cultivators as Peak of Mental Refinement stage cultivators like himself. But there was no time for more thought. They were being attacked. If he failed now, there would be no one to save Varden City and Min and all of the acolytes.

  Chang-li wove a Blindfold and hurled it at the nearest of his opponents. At the same time, with his left hand, he wove a Firepot technique and threw it at the next one in line. Beside him, Joshi struck out, his Thousand Fists technique echoing blows all around.

  Li Jiya had her back to them. She swung her weapon, its blade cutting through the air with a hiss. The Firepot exploded on one cultivator just as Blindfold hit. He stumbled backward, screaming and clawing at his blindfolded eyes as the flames burned him.

  Chang-li started to make another Firepot, but it took time to form the weave, time he just didn't have. He should have made more scrolls, but he had failed to find time for that with all of his other duties.

  Joshi launched one of their opponents high into the air, tumbling away into the mist, then turned to the next. Behind Chang-li Li Jiya's blade thudded home and someone screamed.

  A green and yellow technique flew at Chang-li. He ducked under it, only to have a red and yellow weave explode under his feet, sending up shards of raw lux.

  The enemies had a numbers advantage, but they weren't working together very well. One stepped in front of a weave that his fellow had launched and took a blow to the back of the head. Another swung at Chang-li, who ducked under his weapon and came up inside his reach. Chang-li released his half-formed Firepot directly in the attacker’s face. The explosion was less powerful than a fully closed weave would have made but at pointblank the effect was devastating. The choking scream was horrible as the man staggered back, dropping his sword. Chang-li drew his own sword and infused it with orange and yellow. Flames burst forth. He stabbed with his left hand, plunging his blade into the man’s body. While he was using his sword, he couldn't weave more Firepots, but in this chaos, the weapon was faster against sudden attacks. With his right hand, he continued to weave blindfold and confusion techniques to clutter the battlefield.

  Chang-li was parrying a blow from one of the Golden Locks cultivators when a wave of willpower hit him like a hammer. He stumbled, his sword tip dropping and the technique he'd been trying to weave untied and vanished back into lux. But the opponents were even more staggered; two fell to their knees. Chang-li, wrapping his own will around him like his robes, forced himself forward.

  He swung at one of the kneeling men. As his sword slashed downward a Golden Locks cultivator threw herself in front of the kneeling man, a technique in her hands. Chang-li's sword sliced through it and into the woman. She cried out, stumbling and falling.

  Another wave of will passed over Chang-li, not as fiercely as the first. Behind him, Joshi cried out, "Be careful with that!"

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  "I'm sorry," Li Jiya said. "I'm trying."

  A moment later, the pressure let up just as one of the kneeling cultivators shaped a weave and blasted a green and yellow technique at Chang-li. He barely had time to react. He blocked the technique with his sword, slicing through it which caused the technique to explode in a flash of noise and sound. Lux buffeted against him. He realized the other cultivator had expected him to do just this as the man lunged up and drew a sword of his own in a flashing movement.

  Chang-li ducked and desperately swung. His sword went straight into his opponent's breast. The man's eyes widened. His mouth fell open. He took another step toward Chang-li, driving the point of the sword deeper into him. That was all he managed before his eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed, nearly ripping the sword from Chang-li's hand. With grim determination, he held on and the sword came free of the dying cultivator.

  "Chang-li, duck!" Joshi called.

  Without hesitating, Chang-li dropped. A technique whooshed over his head. Then Joshi strode past him, fists blazing with lux, to punch one of the still-standing Golden Locks cultivators in the head.

  Chang-li glanced behind him. Li Jiya had four cultivators on their knees in front of her. Their eyes were wide and glazed. She was clearly struggling to hold them all.

  "I can't do this much longer," she said through gritted teeth. "Chang-li, end them."

  Chang-li hesitated. They had attacked first. Yes, they were in his way, but they were helpless to fight back. Cutting them down now would be murder. But what choice did he have? They were trying to stop him from saving the tower and Varden City and everyone he cared about. They showed no concern for his life. He raised his sword and stepped forward. He set the tip of his sword on the throat of the first of the cultivators in line. The man looked up at him, eyes rolling madly. He let out a muffled moan.

  "Do it," Li Jiya said desperately. "I'm losing my—"

  And then it was too late. Chang-li felt her will snap. The cultivators were free. The man leapt up, a technique already forming in his hands. Chang-li swung his sword as hard as he could, and the man's head went rolling from his neck.

  Joshi shouted. A moment later, he leapt in behind the remaining three, shaking the earth with the strength of his Meteor Punch technique. He slammed an enormous red-lux gauntleted fist into the back of one woman's head. She dropped.

  Li Jiya had her weapon back out. She sliced through a third and then, pivoting on her toes, moving faster than Chang-li could follow, followed up with a backhand slice that cut down the last.

  The three stood breathing heavily, surrounded by the corpses of their enemies. Lux slowly unraveled from the cores of the defeated cultivators. Chang-li could feel it mixing in with the disturbed lux of the tower, further altering the tones. But he didn't care. Not right now.

  "Why did you hesitate?" Li Jiya demanded. "There's no room for hesitation here. We must defeat them as quickly as we can. Everyone's lives depend on it."

  "I know," Chang-li mumbled. He couldn't meet her eyes. "I'm sorry."

  "You will never progress as a cultivator if you can't do what must be done," Li Jiya said. "That's exactly the sort of thing that got my brother killed—not knowing when to push and when to stop. You're going down the same path he did, and I'm just glad I won't be here to see it."

  Now Joshi spoke up. "Chang-li's problem is the opposite of what killed your brother," he said coldly. "Li Jen used a technique he did not understand in an attempt to push himself to new heights. Chang-li hesitates to use techniques he knows until they are as familiar to him as his own handwriting."

  Shame burned in Chang-li. If that last exchange had gone a little differently, they would be dead, and he didn't know what the Golden Locks cultivators were planning, but he very much doubted they had intended to summon the emperor.

  "What can she have told them?" he wondered aloud. "Surely they realize that we're all going to die if we don't summon the emperor."

  "And how do we know that's true?" Joshi challenged. "Grandmaster Noren says so, but he could be wrong, or he could be lying, or he could have his own agenda. We all know that."

  Li Jiya cut him off. "Do you know where to go next?" she asked Chang-li, who forced himself to concentrate on the feel and the sound of the Lux all around.

  "That way," he said, pointing. It was more of a hunch than a certainty, but he needed to get away from these fallen bodies. Apparently, so did the others, as they all set out together, leaving behind corpses and regret.