Cleo's announcement hung heavy in the air. She smelled tea. Here. Not in any of the places he'd been told to search. In a location belonging to the woman who sold him the information leading him elsewhere. The same woman who convinced him the Mother Elixir no longer existed.

"Well," Hector said. "This is quite unexpected. The tea was in here this whole time?"

"Not in here." Cleo's voice grew muffled as she moved deeper into the tunnel. She rapped her knuckles on the wood panel blocking her exit. "The smell comes from out there. Dry tea leaves and brewing tea both."

Hector only considered his options for a moment. Theft and violence within Toll Burgh were punishable by death, it was true, but he needed that recipe. He called for Cleo to come out of the tunnel, then went down it himself. He felt the suppression field take hold around him halfway through but that didn't deter him at all.

His heel shattered the wood panel with a single kick.

No one was in the room beyond. Cleo rushed past him, nose snuffling like a bloodhound. She guided him through the empty house, taking him up a flight of stairs and into a room whose wooden wall directly abutted stone. Cleo's snout went straight to a small gap.

"Behind there," she said.

Hector dug his hands in, intending to rip the panel free. Instead it swung open on cunningly concealed hinges to reveal a passage hewn into the mountain. The tunnel went straight up. Cleo almost went in first before he yanked her back.

"You're not taking the lead when we might meet hostile Xian, Cleo."

She let him move ahead of her. "Good idea."

He climbed into the tunnel and rushed through the space, growing increasingly eager as his own nose began to pick up the scent of freshly brewed tea. The suppression field vanished. Then he turned a corner and saw light in front of him. Hector moved forward to emerge into a large, artificial space carved into the granite.

There were large ceramic jars along the wall of the tunnel he used. Those were what drew his eyes first. Even through the ceramic and wax sealant, he could sense the potent cosmic energy of the contents. Whatever was in those had a remarkable energy density.

And directly ahead was an even more potent glow. A large basin with its top open radiated intense energy. Shelving behind it held blocks of compressed tea, bags of sugar, animal cores, and buckets of water. At the back of the space a cauldron boiled, sending fragrant tea scents into the air.

Eva stared at him from next to the cauldron. Her externality, a radiator type, created a combination of heat and reddish light beneath the metal container. Hector nodded to her.

"I should let you know the information I purchased wasn't very accurate."

His joke didn't diminish Eva's tension. "Why did you return?"

Hector pulled the level eight core from his pocket. "To make a payment."

"You weren't ever supposed to pay such an extortionist fee. The unfair request was meant to keep you away." Eva shook her head. "Done in by good intentions. This is not how I pictured my end."

He studied the level five woman. All the Mother Elixir gathered in this place might be enough to raise her to lord level. He didn't have a good understanding what the stuff could do, but it was the most potent resource he'd ever seen. With his eyes or Volithur's.

"This isn't your end, Eva. I just need the recipe."

Eva grimaced. "The recipe is meaningless without the Mother. Steep tea leaves in hot water, add sugar and powdered cores, cool to room temperature, pour over top of the Mother."

Hector walked forward and looked down into the basin. What he saw there was a rubbery white mass floating atop old tea. He sniffed the air and caught a hint of sourness. The famed Mother Elixir… was kombucha, the health food craze that obsessed the type of people back home that did yoga. Only as he watched, he saw that the rubbery mass of bacteria and yeast growing in harmony was actively cultivating.

"So if I give the Zing Emperor this recipe, he will come here to take the Mother."

Eva raised her head high. "Either the Emperor, the Usurper, or some Amaratti lord. Someone will come to claim it. Either you kill me today or I must take my own life."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Then I take the recipe and the Mother. I'll tell them that I killed the person who had it."

"I'm sure you would claim such, Hector. But everyone talks under torture."

Hector scowled at the woman. "I refuse to believe the only option involves your death."

Eva sank down to sit on the ground. "I swore oaths, Hector. You are a good man. Surely you understand the burden of loyalty? I can never be in a situation where I can be compelled to speak certain secrets. Even if you left now without taking anything, my fate is sealed."

At a loss, Hector glanced to Cleo. The Arahant savant shrugged and cleared her throat. "Excuse me? Xian lady? It sounds like this world has done you dirty. Why not go to Union Central instead? Hector can set you up there. It sounds like this Mother thing is worth a lot. Make him agree to buy it. He's a sucker like that."

Eva's eyes found Hector's. "I… my concern is not for myself. Safe passage for a person of my choice? Set them up on your other world? Let them take all of these elixirs. All but one, let's say. That can be your fee. Then you take the Mother to the lord who holds your friend hostage."

Pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Eva possessed the Mother Elixir but didn't consume it. She made a small fortune but used it to house thousands of refugees. She sold information to the hunters she should be avoiding by any means possible, sending them away from her city. She spoke of oaths and loyalty. She offered up her chance to escape for the good of some other individual.

"Who is this person? A member of the previous dynasty?"

Eva bowed her head. "The Crown Prince. I am sworn to safeguard him and his inheritance."

Hector stood straighter. "Then you must join him on Union Central."

"I need to get him, then."

When Eva stood, Hector blocked the exit from the chamber. "Hold on. I can't let you go yourself. For all I know you'll come back with Chief Enforcer Felix."

"Then come with me."

Hector laughed. "And leave Cleo alone here?"

"Then take her away. I will wait."

"Again, Eva, I don't know who will be waiting for me when I return."

"How are we to trust each other, then?"

"How about this?" Hector pointed to the basin. "I take you, Cleo, and the Mother to Union Central. Then the two of us come back to collect the Crown Prince. The Mother is hostage on another world until our deal is complete."

Eva squinted at him. "And how am I to know that you aren't taking me directly to your lord?"

"Because I'll be with you, dummy," Cleo said. "An Arahant on Tian."

"And what about the return trip?"

"Make a contract with the System while you're on Union Central. His account gets locked until you safely return. No one can live on Union Central with their account locked."

After a few moments, Eva deigned to ask the obvious question. "What is the System?"

There was only one answer she would understand. "Jinn magic."

"Jinn magic," she spat. "Does it truly enforce agreements?"

"All the time," Cleo said.

So the three of them departed with the Mother in its basin. Hector emerged in his storage space in one of the basement levels. He opened the door to allow Cleo out, proclaimed their contract fulfilled, and waved goodbye as she exited on the elevator. Meanwhile, Eva pawed at the air like she was trying to swat away an annoying insect.

"Those words are the System," he said. "I agree to have my accounts locked until I return with you. Now you say the same thing."

Cleo spoke the words with a heavy dose of skepticism, then startled when she saw something. "Did that actually work?" A notification had appeared before Hector as well, informing him that his agreement was in effect.

Then it was back to Tian. They collected the Crown Prince, a plain-looking teenager by the name of Siegfried, from his factory job and returned to the artificial cave. The prince in disguise followed along without question, walking as if to his execution. It wasn't until they were in the building where all of Eva's nefarious dealings happened that the prince opened his mouth.

"How were you made to turn on me, Frau Eva?"

Hector turned with a quip ready about making a great deal, but he found Eva going to her knees, head bent as tears began to flow. "I submit myself to your will, my prince. I will follow any decree you make. Even should that be my death."

The prince gazed down impassively and Hector's gut clenched.

"Both of you stop." Two sets of eyes turned to Hector. "She didn't sell you out, Prince Siegfried. I caught her making the Mother Elixir and she negotiated a means for you to escape."

"There is nowhere safe for me if my survival is known," he said.

"Maybe not on this world. I'm taking you elsewhere."

The prince frowned. "To an unempowered world where I will waste away?"

Hector looked down at the prince. "You're taking all the jars of Mother Elixir with you. All but one, that is. You'll be living a comfortable life among dreamers and rogues, stronger than everyone around you. Once you start drinking those elixirs, at least." At present the prince was only a paltry level four.

When Eva finally looked up long enough to see the quizzical expression, she answered the unspoken question. "Hector is not a true Xian. He is a rogue."

"A dreamer, actually. The only reason I'm interested in this stupid treasure hunt is because my friend is being held hostage by a lord. You'll get to know her soon enough. She works at the cafe of the building you'll live in."

After a while, the prince looked down at Eva. "You trust this man?"

"I do, my prince."

"Then I will hold off on pronouncing a sentence. Perhaps this new world will work out."

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