Depthless Hunger

Chapter 163: Kindling a Blue Flame

When she cultivated, Zae Zin Nim was supposed to completely clear her mind and focus on nothing but her qi. Perhaps Kai had infected her, but that wasn't as easy anymore. Instead she continued cultivating, still at reasonable efficiency, while her mind churned on other topics.

First strategy, of course. Advancing her cultivation at a reasonable speed meant gaining access to qi, which meant taking assorted risks. Many in the city were interested in engaging with her, each potentially a beneficial relationship or a trap that would waste her time. She didn't feel any guilt about losing her focus to consider such matters.

But after that, Zae Zin Nim found her mind wandering to less comfortable topics. The threat of being taken back to her father in chains had thrown her life into sharp relief. She knew what she didn't want, but what was she truly seeking?

Past the moment of tension she could see that returning would have been an option. She could have accepted the seal, then resisted the other processes meant to contain her. If successful, she would have been back on Cloudspire in the middle of many valuable resources, where she could potentially have broken out and taken everything she needed. Even if she couldn't have convinced her father, she could have leveraged that into a stronger position against him.

Even if, against all odds, she had defeated her father, would she have been happy? A long time ago, being at the head of a top sect had struck her as the greatest possible achievement in life. Now that seemed a bit simple-minded to her, because the world contained so much more. She wanted to build a life for herself that had nothing to do with him, even his systems.

Yet she didn't find herself any more enamored with Krysal or the rest of Deadwaste. Kai was the only worthwhile thing she had found there, and he cared about all this for some reason. So she was locked into this conflict, at least until she could find him and convince him otherwise.

"Hanelay?" One of the servants poked her head into the room nervously. "Lady Orillia would like to see you now. She says it's important."

"Very well." Zae Zin Nim set aside her confused thoughts and slow cultivation, and went to go deal with whatever the newest problem was.

When she reached the central building, the old woman looked less spunky than usual. She drew a shawl closer around her shoulders over her other wraps and gestured for Zae Zin Nim to approach and sit in the chair right beside her.

"I fear the conflict is getting worse," Orillia told her. "The profit the city earned from the auction is running out, and everyone is getting desperate. Loss of trade with Cloudspire doesn't hit everyone, but it hits some very hard, and they'll lash out at others."

"What do you want me to do about it?" Zae Zin Nim asked. She had a suspicion that she was too blunt, but didn't care.

"Everyone will react in their own ways, and that's what I need to know. It could be anything from new trade agreements to fighting over mines to - heaven forbid - going to war with another city. Even a day of forewarning could mean the difference between riding the wave of change and drowning."

"I can try, but I don't understand what I can do."

"Go to Mercantile Central and see where the top merchants have placed their Diamond Crystalliers. Or the Rubies, if you can track them. You're the only one I know strong enough for them to respect, they might give you some information."

"Very well." Zae Zin Nim bowed to Orillia and padded out to her crystal ship.

As she traveled to Mercantile Central, she resented this errand less than some others. It still frustrated her to be doing the bidding of others and working with all these petty little systems. She wasn't like Kai, who found satisfaction in earning his way upward. In her opinion it would have been better to do what that Omilaena woman did and just steal what she wanted.

That thought led her back to Kai and the idea of him being in that woman's clutches. She had demanded Orillia send scouts and messengers, but there was no indication of his existence. Omilaena had apparently returned to New Laeneria and was staying quiet, which was no answer at all. Only the fact that it might be an entirely false trail kept Zae Zin Nim from rushing off after him.

At the same time, it was clear that Kai wasn't going to simply return to Yulthens, not if he hadn't made it back so far. She had no idea where to look for him, which was doubly frustrating. So perhaps she had nothing better to do than cultivate and build up her resources.

Mercantile Central was one of the few buildings in Krysal that actually succeeded in being grand on the scale of Cloudspire instead of merely looking gaudy. Zae Zin Nim didn't mind visiting it, except for the people. Soon she was going to be surrounded by merchants and other unpleasant types, even though her goal was the Diamond Crystalliers.

The trading floor was a chaotic frenzy, so she circled around it without attempting to decrypt all the mercantile jabbering within. Then she noted her first target: Boreas of Kartiis was making a public appearance, which was itself unusual, and standing guard over some sort of great crystal chest. If they were hiring him, then the merchants and auction house must still be afraid that more would be stolen.

Boreas looked directly at her and revealed his teeth in something that was almost, but not quite, a smile. Zae Zin Nim bowed in response as if it had been a gesture of respect.

She moved on to avoid instigating any trouble. Nothing leapt out at her until she found a number of business chambers, each closed off for private dealings in quiet, sound-proof rooms. Vyorrine Nermtrian leaned against the wall outside one, looking bored. She still wore her ostentatious golden dragon cape, which she flipped aside when Zae Zin Nim approached.

"Move along, cultivator. Everyone is antsy about your kind lately."

"I am not here to cause trouble, only serve as guard," Zae Zin Nim said. "It's dull."

"Heh, well, I can understand that." Vyorrine jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at the door beside them. "My boss is in there negotiating some sort of deal I can't make heads or tails of. Something about 'futures contracts' that only come into play if the gold to crystal ratio goes high enough. That might sound like I'm giving away secrets, but apparently the numbers could make the deal good, bad, or nothing at all. I don't worry about it so long as I get paid."

The gambit had worked: Zae Zin Nim had strongly suspected that the Diamond Crystallier was being used as a guard for new ventures. "I do not even try to understand this. On Cloudspire, we don't allow the merchants to be in charge of so much."

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"Maybe it'd be better that way, maybe not." They stood there in silence for a while before Vyorrine spoke up again. "You should probably be careful. They say Lord Suortril is on the warpath, and there's always a chance he'll try to target you."

"Is he here now?"

"Nah, he's staying out of Mercantile Central. Nobody has seen Traelisia much these days either. Rumor has it that after his string of losses, he's aiming for something big. He doesn't have enough allies to fight another city, but maybe he could capture a mine or something."

"I see." Zae Zin Nim looked around the chambers, wondering if that information would be relevant. "And what about his rivals? Your 'boss' of course, but... that Riuklina woman as well."

"As far as I know, Lady Riuklina is all over the place. Probably trying to undercut Suortril somehow." Vyorrine shook her head. "I stay out of that sort of thing. It tends to be overall destructive: maybe someone makes a profit, but I end up with fewer chances to earn money or power. Won't tell you what to do, but I'd steer clear if I was in your position."

"Thank you, I will keep that in mind."

After remaining for a while longer, Zae Zin Nim left the private rooms to investigate the lower levels. At least she had learned useful information from Vyorrine. Once the other woman would have struck her as weak, trying to mash together many different arts into a real system, but perhaps this was mistaken. She had won the duel, and she had found a strength of her own not beholden to any one source.

It seemed that Zae Zin Nim had discovered a comprehensible picture as well: the merchants of Yulthens were going to war. Perhaps that war would be fought solely with gold and parchment, but perhaps they would summon their strongest crystalliers to do battle as well. Learning more about where that might lead was a worthy mission after all.

Beneath the main floor there were various storage rooms holding goods in transit. Zae Zin Nim's plan had been to examine the qi she found there and determine exactly how much Cloudspire trade had been lost, and potentially who still had connections. Before she could go far, someone stepped into her path.

Ren Ziq Quen stared down at her, then shook his head. "Run back home, little cultivator."

"Am I not permitted to be here?" she asked, barely maintaining a pretense of calm.

"There aren't any rules about it, but I think I get to make the rules now." Ren Ziq Quen smiled unpleasantly. "I know you're meddling, on behalf of the old woman or someone else, and I can't permit that. So run off, unless you're more confident than you were last time."

Zae Zin Nim didn't allow herself to flinch, instead examining his soul.

Name: Ren Ziq Quen

Total Power: 462

Cultivation: Nascent Foundation 20% (257)

Divine Physique Level: E-0 (80)

Soul Level: 5 (25)

Transcendent Divine Body (+100)

>

He was no stronger than before, but unfortunately that was enough. She couldn't overcome the advantage granted by the Transcendent Divine Body, just as the Brightwind cultivators had been at a disadvantage against her Blackblood Physique.

Ren Ziq Quen didn't bother to use his spiritual sight, as if she wasn't worth it. After a moment, Zae Zin Nim turned and left.

That encounter left her troubled, and Zae Zin Nim thought about it the entire time that she returned to the estate and gave her report to Orillia. She was a fool, thinking about fighting her father when there were threats on Deadwaste she couldn't overcome. If she couldn't defeat Ren Ziq Quen, then she wouldn't stand a chance against an Earth Soul cultivator, and it would be suicide to stand against her father.

Three cliffs loomed high in front of her, each taller than the next.

She threw herself into cultivation, and it worked for a time, but soon she had to admit that her progress was too slow. Unless she discovered a massive amount of pure qi - which was growing scarce in the city - or found a natural source - which seemed unlikely on Deadwaste - then she couldn't simply cultivate her way out of this problem.

It was the same struggle she had been facing her entire time in Krysal, so Zae Zin Nim looked at her soul forlornly.

Name: Zae Zin Nim

Total Power: 384

Cultivation: Nascent Foundation 11% (254)

Coldfire Corona: 15 (25)

Blackblood Physique Level: E-0 (80)

Soul Level: 5 (25)

>

She wasn't strong enough to face her greatest opponents, and truthfully she probably couldn't defeat the Diamond Crystalliers. It was no comfort that they were the strongest people in the entire nation, and some of the strongest on all Deadwaste. Life didn't care about fairness, and if she couldn't overcome these challenges then she didn't deserve to advance further.

Usually she stared at her cultivation and despaired. But that moment, for the first time in many days, Zae Zin Nim felt a flicker of hope.

Thinking about this as a pure cultivator was entirely the wrong approach. She had once thought that she should advance with nothing except qi, but her view of the world had expanded. Meeting warriors like Kai or Vyorrine proved that it was possible to take other paths. Even Ren Ziq Quen wasn't truly pure: it was a polite social fiction that the Transcendent Divine Body was a core part of his cultivation when in fact it was an additional benefit, no different from the draconic blessings.

So, with her new approach, what did she have? By far the most obvious option was that she shouldn't neglect her Physique, the way practically all cultivators and crystalliers did after they reached E rank. She could make progress on her own and find new techniques if it slowed.

Zae Zin Nim sprang into a handstand and held herself there, all her qi tense. No reason to delay even a moment.

While upside down, she reflected that she had been neglecting the Coldfire Corona as well. She had been viewing it as simply a necessary step to unblock her cultivation, but she no longer looked down on Classes so much. Despite her neglect, it had been slowly growing with use, faithfully supporting her in several situations where she should otherwise have died.

How far could she develop it? Judging from the strongest Classes she had seen, at full strength it could bridge the gap between her and stronger cultivators, but she knew that most never got that high. She would begin with the mana meditation that Kai taught her and then seek out other sources.

For days Zae Zin Nim threw herself into her new strategy, and she was pleased with her progress. The fact that it took a little time away from pure cultivation was no flaw, it was a rational decision to move her forward. Her goal had never been "being a great cultivator", it had always been power in the pure sense.

One day the door opened and she turned in her handstand to glower at the servant. To her surprise, it was Orillia herself stepping in. The old woman clucked in surprise at what she saw.

"Turn yourself right side up, dear, we need to talk." Orillia looked more nervous than ever before, so Zae Zin Nim acquiesced and flipped to her feet.

"What is it?"

"There's an absolutely terrible rumor about Suortril. It has to do with inter-city crystal trade and how it affects the conversion ratio... okay, okay, I can see what you think of that!" Orillia patted her on the shoulder. "I never liked all those details when I was your age, either."

"If you came to me, you must think I can do something," Zae Zin Nim said. "Explain that part."

"Basically... each city wants to be independent, but for more profitability, they're all connected. A problem with one starts to affect the others, which is why we're Krysal instead of a bunch of random cities. Some are claiming that there's a problem out east, toward the Frontier. The cities there have been propping themselves up, pretending everything is fine, but that might be falling apart. If it does, the trouble will roll westward, and it could be big by the time it reaches Yulthens."

"What sort of trouble?"

"Merchant problems, loans falling through, all kinds of tedious details. But there must be a reason at the base of it. Rumors are that Suortril is so worried that he went out there himself, with his Diamond Crystallier and half his aides." Orillia shook her head slowly. "Early information about this could be critical. You're the only person I have who could get there and back in time to learn anything useful."

"So you want me to go investigate." Zae Zin Nim would have refused a week ago, but with no Kai showing himself, perhaps it was for the best to keep pushing herself.

"Please do, but be careful. This could be anything from a mistake to a rampaging monster to a disaster that will cripple us. If there's enough gold on the line, Suortril will be playing for keeps."

Zae Zin Nim nodded and began making her preparations. To her surprise, she felt no resentment. Sometimes it was easier to take what she needed, but sometimes alliances were their own kind of power. Violence and theft were only tools, and she would use whatever tools she could grasp.