Unintended Cultivator

Sen stuck around just long enough for Misty Peak to return with Li Yi Nuo. The woman from the sect was bound at the wrists with something that looked like ordinary rope, but Sen assumed was something wholly different. Li Yi Nuo was no body cultivator like him, but she was a relatively advanced core cultivator. Basic rope shouldn’t be enough to hold her. He also lifted an eyebrow at the gag that was firmly fixed in the woman’s mouth. He thought about saying something but decided to just let it go. Otherwise, he’d end up in some long, convoluted argument with the fox woman that would just end with Sen unsure if there had been a winner. He was going to finish that formation today and didn’t plan to let anyone get in the way of it.

Sen had to suppress a laugh when he saw how wide Li Yi Nuo’s eyes went when she saw that she’d been brought back to the galehouse. Misty Peak half-pulled, half-led the woman over to Sen. She gave him an expectant look. He gave her a quizzical look. She gave him an exasperated look. Not sure what he should do next, he just crossed his eyes and let his mouth hang open a little.

“Aren’t you going to thank me?” she asked.

“For returning the hostage you said you’d give back only if Laughing River agreed to let you tag along with me? No. That’s not something you get thanked for.”

“You didn’t have to paint it in the worst possible light. You’re so grumpy today.”

Sen almost objected, but he realized he was sort of grumpy. He changed the subject after he saw Li Yi Nuo shaking her bound wrists at him. He glanced over at Misty Peak.

“Aren’t you going to untie her?” he asked.

“Good gods, no. If I do that, she’ll take out the gag. Then, she’ll start talking again. None of us want that.”

Li Yi Nuo shot the fox woman a murderous glare, and Sen thought that leaving her tied up might actually be safer for everyone. Still, it just wasn’t practical in the long run. He gestured at the rope. Misty Peak gave him the most dubious of dubious looks, but she complied. Sen was certain he felt a tingle of something at the very edges of his spiritual sense. I wasn’t imagining it, he thought with triumph. While it was subtle enough that he’d likely never spot it if he was under stress or in battle, he could sense the magic the fox was using a little bit. He’d have to be mindful about that in the future. As fascinating that as that confirmation was, he didn’t have time to savor it after Misty Peak untied Li Yi Nuo’s hands. Sen felt the qi spike around the sect woman, and she ripped the gag off. The rope was a qi-suppressing treasure, Sen realized. Li Yi Nuo whirled toward Misty Peak.

“You abominable woman. How dare you tie and gag me like some kind of common beast. I am-,” she started.

Sen knew that he did not have the patience for the next thing the woman was about to say.

“So help me, Li Yi Nuo, if you utter one word about honor or your sect, I will put that gag back in myself,” said Sen.

Misty Peak shot Li Yi Nuo a triumphant look that Sen didn’t quite understand.

The sect woman turned toward him with utter shock on her face. “But she-”

“Did she hurt you?” asked Sen.

“What?”

“Did she do you any actual, physical harm? Aside from tying you up and gagging you, did she even threaten to do you any harm? Be honest. Did you ever even feel like you were going to be harmed?”

Li Yi Nuo’s mouth worked a few times before she finally said, “Well… No. Not really.”

“Then all of this bluster you're about to throw around is just about your wounded pride, and I do not have the tolerance for that today. When we’re out of this miserable forest, you can swear eternal vengeance on her and complain to the heavens but not until then.”

The fox woman’s triumphant look vanished at Sen’s last statement.

“Wait,” said Misty Peak, “I’m not comfortable with this whole eternal vengeance thing.”

Sen gave her a withering look. “Do you really feel like you’ve got a leg to stand on there?”

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“I have two excellent legs to stand on. And don’t think I haven’t seen you looking at them,” said Misty Peak, throwing him a coy look.

Sen lifted a hand to his face and rubbed at his eyes, suddenly certain that he hadn’t given his body enough time to rest and heal. That had to be the reason he was feeling so tired.

“You’re wearing robes,” said Sen. “I can’t see your legs.”

“Not now, but I’m sure you snuck a peak while I was bathing.”

“What?!” shouted Li Yi Nuo. “That’s so dishonorable.”

Sen just shook his head and gave the fox woman a disapproving look. “That was you, looking at me.”

The fox woman grinned. “Oh yeah, it was.”

Li Yi Nuo was staring at the Misty Peak in horror. “You didn’t?”

“I think the only real question here is why you didn’t. Look at him.”

Sen just turned and started walking toward the forest.

“Where are you going?” said Li Yi Nuo and Misty Peak at the same time.

“That conversation doesn’t need me, and I have work to do.”

Remembering something, Sen turned around and went back. He walked past the two women and leaned around the corner of the galehouse.

“Hey, I’m going. You should probably come with me,” said Sen before he turned and looked at Li Yi Nuo. “Don’t panic. It’s not going to hurt you.”

“What isn’t going to hurt me?” she asked.

“Big spider,” said Misty Peak in a nonchalant tone, as though she hadn’t been all but yelling at Sen about it less than two hours before.

“Big spider?” asked Li Yi Nuo before she let out a terrified shriek as the spider came around the side of the building.

Sen kept an eye on Li Yi Nuo to make sure she wouldn’t do anything they’d all regret and then resumed his walk toward the forest. The spider trailed along behind him, seeming unbothered by the terror all but radiating off of the sect woman. He tried to tune it out, but Sen caught a little bit of an exchange between the woman.

“What is that thing?” demanded Li Yi Nuo.

“I think it's his pet,” said Misty Peak. “Or maybe it’s the other way around. It’s hard to tell with the spiders.”

“Pet?” asked Li Yi Nuo. “How do you even make something like that into a pet?”

“He saved it from a fire eagle.”

“How?”

“How do you think?” asked Misty Peak.

Sen picked up the pace at that point, not even remotely interested in hearing the story of something he did told secondhand. He wasn’t even interested in hearing himself tell the story. The whole thing was pretty embarrassing. He wanted to think he’d made lots of mistakes, but he really hadn’t. Once he’d decided to save the spider, the only way to get there fast enough was the way he did it, and everything that went wrong ultimately evolved from that. But even the things that went wrong hadn’t truly been mistakes. He’d made a lot of decisions with exactly no time to make them. If he’d had time to think them all through and been a little less foggy, he probably would have made other choices. Of course, it was easy to see where you could have done something else when you had all the time in the world to think it over.

The fact was that he had succeeded in the end. He just wished it had been cleaner and involved crashing into fewer trees. That was the only way in which considering all of the other options afterward was helpful. It let you make better decisions the next time you did something. As long as you didn’t let it bog you down with uncertainty and indecision. It was a hard balance to maintain. Too much certainty could lead you straight into your own death. Not enough certainty and you could hesitate yourself into the same position. Most days, Sen felt like he was striking the right balance, but it was almost impossible to judge from the inside. He’d been lucky enough to survive the times he was wrong. He just had to hope that he was learning from those mistakes.

Sen found where he’d left off with the formation flags and got right to work. He let his spiritual sense spread out and was surprised to find that the number of his watchers had been cut in half. He also noticed that they were far less vigilant. They moved around more, and he was pretty sure they all went off to kill and eat something while he kept working. Maybe he had achieved a bit of goodwill with the spider queen. At least enough that they didn’t assume he’d run off to murder all of the spiders without constant supervision. If so, he’d take it as a win. He didn’t love the sense of being under watchful eyes all the time, even if he had agreed to it.

When he positioned the final flag, he almost didn’t believe it. There had been so many interruptions and delays, he’d started to think the formations would never be done. Plus, he’d been running short on formation flags. Even spacing them with a more generous distance than he felt entirely comfortable with, it had been close. Now that they were all in, though, all that was left was testing. He grumbled under his breath a little about the testing. He could run some qi through the formations, which was a mostly reliable test. It still wasn’t the same as actually using the formation. It was just the best he could do under the circumstances. Sen held his breath and took the formation to the half-activated state.

By touching one of the flags, he could get an impression from the entire formation. He could see that there were some minor problems, but they all felt fixable. He repeated the operation with the second formation he’d set up. That one also had a few problems that closely mirrored the first formation’s problems, but he could make the adjustments that both formations needed as long as he didn’t waste too much time. A little bit of excitement wormed its way through Sen’s mind. He was aware that they would do something very dangerous the next day, but he was ready to face that danger. He was ready to be through with this task and being stuck so deep in the wilds. Taking a moment to stretch, he fixed the positions of the problem spots with the formations in his mind. With a small group of oversized spiders in tow, Sen set out for the first of those spots with a determined step.

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