3 Ch 3

Hatzu heard the noise as he ran but never looked back. He travelled all night reaching the next town. Without stopping he hired a carriage and travelled further. Sleeping as he went the child slowly began to regain his wits. Three days later he was pressed against the opposite coast looking at a small inn before another vast sea.

Hatzu soon realized that a meager gold piece could buy him food and lodging for two seasons.

After a few days he showed know sign of remorse for the captain or his newfound freedom. No inclination to leave and no will for anything else but after a few months he was board senseless.

At first, he was simply escaping but as his mind settled down and is body began to relax, he began to remember and wonder. The old man, his flying dagger a pirate and his trinket worth a bag of gold. Most of all the child wondered about those key words; 'a cultivator'

Hatzu stayed at the inn past the winter and the thaw of spring - all the way into the following summer before that word was uttered again.

"What you can't be serious!" A young boy yelled from a small table off in the corner. The inn was small and the restaurant beneath it was quite smaller; even off in the corner one's words might carry.

Hatzu, overhearing the conversation, was normally aware of most guest and their familiar faces but recently he had seen more like this child – more like this group.

Wrapped in a yellow robe with a monogrammed sigil above the heart the boy stood at the table arguing with another dressed similarly in purple.

"Master Han will destroy your master Wu before he ever gets to lay an eye on the astral token."

As Hatzu overheard this he eventually stood to approach. His calm leisurely life in this inn brought him no trouble so the thought of danger never crossed his mind.

"What is an astral token?" Hatzu asked as he approached the table.

"Who is this mortal?" The group began to ask each other before a red robed individual spoke up; "an astral token is like a ticket to the stars; it turns mortals into immortals."

As he finished speaking, he took out two Gold coins and spoke softly "how does one obtain one?" As he placed the coins down, he looked to the figure cloaked in red.

The man in red looked to the gold, then to him. The surface of the gold started to bubble, as the boiling liquid gold touched the table the wood it ignited. The other robed cultivators began to laugh as the looked towards the fire.

"That is not enough…" the red cultivator said looking through the flames. "I am a cultivator…"

In an instant Hatzu pulled the dagger from his side and slammed it into the melting gold coins. Completely on its own the dagger reacted to the heat and froze the table dropping the temperature of the room to a chilling degree.

"Foundation level?" The yellow robed man cried out in shock.

The red robed cultivator also in shock did not move, instead she removed her hood and looked Hatzu in the eye. "Where did a mortal find a sealed dagger from the Rotating Five Seal Sect?"

"I traded for it, cultivators practice a belief of equal and fair trade do they not?" Hatzu said. He was still young but his time on the ship had made him tough, his year of measure brought him desire, and his youth left him foolish.

"Fine, are you looking to trade?" The female asked, "I promise on the immortal assembly that I will be fare and not seek your life. What do you say?"

"What do you offer?"

"You are not a cultivator and to seek an astral token would be the end of your life, if not for our masters of the sect we students would not venture out either. I can however offer you any of these items that are for cultivators. They will not help you, but each is worth more gold than you could spend in a lifetime."

As the woman spoke, she pulled out several pull bottles, a few medical herbs, several stacks of books and a few small simple talismans. Hatzu looked several of the items up and down before asking "how many books can I get?"

The cultivator laughed "why do you want books?"

"Recently I learned to read, if the pills are for immortals and cultivators, they will probably kill me. If the items were valuable you wouldn't want to give them up and if they where your fellow students might just kill me for them" Hatzu took a pause; "but the books I can read and gold I do not need more of."

The cultivator laughed before withdrawing all the other items and pulling out several other stacks of books, "You can take all the books that you can accommodate, they are of no value to the other cultivators of my sect." With a wave of her delicate hand the dagger flew to the woman before she took her exit.

The inn keeper finally appeared as the cultivators too their leave speaking with a tremble "how did this happen?"

Hatzu pulled out two more gold coins and placed them on the half burned half frozen table "How much gold would it cost to buy this inn?"

"More than two gold" the old man said.

Hatzu paused, "How much more?"

"Ten…" the man said thinking twelve coins of pure gold and he could never work again.

"Fine ten times, bring the books to my room I will prepare you twenty gold coins." Hatzu said leading the old man, "I have but two requests, first you must continue to manage this place. Second when those cultivators – marked with some clan or sect sigil enter – I am to be informed.