"It was not your place to make that decision,” Li Jiya fumed. She and Joshi had spent several more hours inside the tower until the competition was over, but had not recovered any more puzzle boxes or succeeded in downing any challenges.

  Now Chang-li, Joshi, and Li Jiya were back at the Sect of Morning Mist's headquarters in the training room. The disciples had all been sent off to enjoy themselves for a few hours. Min sat quietly in one corner, cycling with her eyes closed, but Chang-li could read the interest radiating off of her body.

  Li Jiya continued to pace. “If you had been with me, Joshi, we could have secured the puzzle box before our enemy arrived.”

  “And if I had left Chang-li behind, they might have attacked him and killed him before a prism could intervene,” Joshi pointed out. “The risk wasn’t worth taking.”

  "We acquired one-third of the puzzle boxes," Chang-li reminded her, still feeling guilty about his failure, "and we downed a challenge beast. Your standing in this competition remains secure."

  "I didn't want us to maintain. I wanted us to advance," Li Jiya snarled. "How can I show that I am the best candidate for the Emperor's bride if I cannot even get my own sect to listen to me?"

  "Then perhaps you should offer the sect more than you demand,” Joshi said. “Chang-li and the disciples and I fight for you. What good does participating in this contest do us?"

  Chang-li nodded along. He'd been thinking along similar lines himself in the past few days. "Li Jiya, you promised us there would be opportunities for advancement here, perhaps even opportunities other sects would not have. So far, we've been making no progress toward the next step of our own advancement, and the sect is bogged down in these petty little competitions. Every minute we spend helping you gain standing is time I could be spending researching or teaching the disciples — “

  “Or working on my own advancement," Joshi interjected. "This is becoming a distraction.When was the last time you thought about what it will take to reach Spiritual Refinement?” he asked Chang-li. Some of Joshi's displeasure was, no doubt, provoked by his unexpected and unwanted betrothal to Hiroko, but Chang-li couldn't disagree.

  "These new disciples are wasting your time," Joshi continued. "The hours you have spent teaching them the basics of cultivation and seeking through the scrolls for techniques for the weak, you could have spent more profitably working on your own advancement. You have made no progress, have you?"

  Chang-li hesitated. "Well, I thought my efforts against Mai Wen's willpower went fairly well."

  "Then we should be seeking out beasts that use willpower against us," Joshi said. "You've told me yourself. Your studies have said higher levels in towers are rife with that sort of beast. We've seen nothing of it here. These challenges chosen to allow the competitors to show off for the Prisms' pleasure, not to promote advancement.”

  "We're halfway through the competition, and I have as good a chance as anyone of winning," Li Jiya said. "You can't abandon me now. I need the backing of the sect."

  "But the sect does not need you," Joshi said.

  "That's because it isn't a real sect," Li Jiya snapped back. "It's a front for a criminal organization. I won't be used by this rabble of commoners who are trying to seize the benefits of cultivation with no understanding of its obligations. Cultivating isn't about making yourself stronger so that you can punish your enemies. It's about upholding your duty to the Emperor and the Empire."

  "To hell with that," Joshi erupted, clenching his fists. "The Emperor, the Prisms and the Empire itself can come down in a burning heap of rubble for all I care. I cultivate so that no one can ever again take advantage of me. I will become stronger so that I can protect what's mine, starting with my own freedom."

  The two of them glared at each other for a moment and then both of them looked at Chang-li as though expecting him to interject. He was trying to sort out his own confused feelings. Joshi was right; it frustrated him not to be advancing. But his competitiveness was driving him to win this contest for Li Jiya, to prove to everyone here that Morning Mist were a real sect. “Li Jiya,” he said slowly. “You came to us for help. We have given it. Why are you being so difficult now?”

  She turned on him, nostrils flaring. “That’s just it! You don’t see — for you and the sect, this is just another tower, another step on your path to advancement. When you’re finished here you’ll be off to another tower, looking for your next step. But I abandoned my family and my sect for this chance. If I fail now, what do I have? You don’t want me as part of your sect. Not truly.”

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  Chang-li considered protesting, but she was right. Li Jiya was a talented cultivator but he didn’t trust her to protect him or to think of the sect first. Not when she’d left her own sect so easily. But she was wrong, in other ways. She didn’t realize that this was only the second tower their so-called sect had ever entered, that they had a future just as perilous as hers. “We are keeping up our end of the bargain. You should return the favor. While you are here, embrace the sect. Help us grow.”

  Li Jiya rolled her eyes. “So you want to make me into a tutor for barroom brawlers and backroom thugs?"

  Nettled, Chang-li let his irritation get the better of him. "That's not who the disciples are. Have you bothered to speak with them, either of you?" he asked, knowing that the answer was negative. "Our new batch of disciples are the sons and daughters of shopkeepers, farmers, fishermen. Several of them spent all their lives down in the Flotsam until Min's grandfather gave them a chance to improve themselves. Brother Stone's the only enforcer the Brotherhood has sent us, and that was just because he already had learned some basics of cultivation."

  Li Jiya and Joshi both looked taken aback.

  "I thought he was trying to raise up cultivators to stamp on his enemies," Li Jiya said.

  "They will do that," Min said from her corner. She opened her eyes. "I won't pretend that that's not part of my grandfather's agenda, but the Brotherhood isn't about giving a bunch of common folk weapons and turning them into an armed mob to clobber your enemies. It's about giving those ordinary people the tools they need to stand on their own two feet. The Brotherhood arranges apprenticeships for likely young people who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity. They make deals that benefit our members, promote alliances, pay off medical debt and see young married couples off to a good start. This is just an extension of that.” She shrugged. "I won't pretend my grandfather's motives are completely pure, but he's not just a back-alley thug.”

  "Enough," Joshi said. "Let's find out what value these puzzle boxes have. Whatever else we may come away with, my tower boons have proved their worth already. I'm eager to acquire another."

  That, Chang-li agreed wholeheartedly. He took the two puzzle boxes from his soul space while Li Jiya produced one from the folds of her robes. She held it up, eyeing it. "It looks like just a small application of lux at the pressure points will open it," she said and performed the action. The puzzle box in her hand cracked open as though the top half were on a hinge. Inside was a tiny scroll. Li Jiya took it and unrolled it, her brow furrowed.

  "I can't read this." She passed it off to Chang-li.

  He squinted. "Right, these are old-style characters from the first centuries of the empire. Modern characters have been reformed to be easier to read, but licensed scribes are trained to read old documents."

  "Go ahead, then," Li Jiya said, crossed her arms impatiently. Min had stopped any pretense of cycling and now drifted across the room to peer over Chang-li's shoulder.

  "I've seen characters like this on official proclamations, but I certainly can't read them," she said. "They're just there for the effect. The real content of a proclamation is always in modern script."

  Chang-li's head throbbed as he stared at the characters. "She is mistress of all beneath the skies. Seek her where the water roars," he managed after some effort. Lowering the scroll, he met Li Jiya and Joshi's confused looks.

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "It must be a clue to the nature of the Floor Guardian," Joshi said. "The ones we have met before have not appeared to us physically, but the monks of Harupa said some might."

  "So this Floor Guardian takes the form of an eagle, maybe?" Min ventured. "And where's the place where the waters roar?"

  "The whole floor is an enormous lake full of floating islands," Chang-li said. "Maybe there's a whirlpool in the center that we have to find?"

  "Hopefully the other clues will give us more insight," Li Jiya said. "Go ahead."

  Chang-li applied tiny tendrils of yellow lux to the first of his puzzle boxes. It took him two tries to get the technique right. Then it hinged open, revealing a tiny censer, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, made of slightly tarnished brass. It was dull, with no ornamentation, just a simple handle and the chamber for the incense. He held it up, feeling more baffled than ever, and passed it around the room. Each of them took a turn scrutinizing it. Min held it longest.

  "There's a maker's mark on the bottom," she said. "It's a coppersmith down on the tenth petal. I can put some feelers out."

  "Do that," Li Jiya said, and Min nodded. Chang-li felt slightly annoyed at being cut out of the discussion, but it wasn't worth bringing up, so he let it pass.

  Li Jiya took the censer and stowed it away in the folds of her robes as Chang-li opened the final puzzle box. Inside was a shining blue scale, thin and flexible like he'd expect to see on a fish, but larger than one of his eyes. He held it up to the light. It was faintly translucent. Again, he passed it around.

  "Maybe we burn it in the censer along with some incense," Min ventured, "and that summons the Floor Guardian?"

  "There were six other clues," Joshi said. "Even assuming some of them might overlap, we cannot think to have found everything. There is more to this puzzle. We will have to study it."

  "Yes," Min said, "and I think—" but she was interrupted by loud voices downstairs. People had come into the house, quite a few of them, in fact. All of the voices sounded male and very excited. The four exchanged glances. Chang-li sighed and headed for the stairs, Min following. If there was a commotion among the disciples, he needed to know about it.

  Halfway down the stairs, he got a good view of the entrance hall. Sure enough, most of the disciples were there, clustering excitedly around a newcomer. Brother Stone stood in the doorway, looking bemused.

  Chang-li focused on the stranger. He was a powerfully built man in his middle years, with a dark black goatee and long dark hair that fell in a queue from his balding head. He looked up and met Chang-li's eyes. His own were yellow, his features vaguely hawk-like and craggy. Then Chang-li spotted what he should have seen immediately. The man was wearing Morning Mist robes and a ring on his thumb.

  "Well met, disciple," the man said cheerfully. "Rejoice, your Grandmaster has returned to you." He threw his arms wide as Chang-li gaped.

  “Don’t just stand there. Summon the sect.”