~Chapter Seven: A Picture Of The Wider World

"I must say, your people's dedication to martial arts is impressive.

But growth in martial disciplines is linear.

Wizards are quadratic."

***

"I can help," the limpet said the very moment Alex and I stepped out of the bookstore.

I looked down at the limpet, taking full advantage of the added height gained by standing atop the first step leading into the shop to pin her in place.

The girl cringed back.

I, as always, had options; and acting without considering these were not in my nature as a man of science.

I could teleport the girl over the lake. Perhaps casting Yeetus Annoyus--a spell developed by an old colleague to dismiss certain students of his--to fling her away harmlessly.

On the other hand, she was a local. She might know a few things about the area that I couldn't learn through casual observation alone.

I could always interrogate her now, then fling her into the lake later.

Either way, she'd get flung into the lake for annoying me, but the latter meant that I'd at least get some use out of her.

The dog next to her stared up at me, its tail between its legs and its eyes narrowed with dog-like suspicion.

I wondered if it would be foolish enough to try to attack me. That would be the last thing it did while alive, if so.

I was more of a cat person.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"I'm Fenfang," the limpet said.

"Hmm," I said.

"And this guy's name is Fang," she said as she gave the dog a friendly pat on the head.

"You named your dog after yourself?" I asked.

She nodded and smiled up at me. "Yes."

Even I wasn't that full of myself. "Well, limpet, you can follow me up to that Four Venoms compound and tell me about the area and its history."

Her eyes lit up. "Really? Is this a test?"

A test of my patience, perhaps. Oh-oh!

"Let's go with that," I said before gesturing off towards the far end of the town.

"You can start by telling me the fastest route to get to the compound. And then tell me what happened to those two young men that were here earlier."

The streets were still as lively as they had been when I arrived, more so perhaps.

There was no sign of the two young men that Alex and I had taken care of earlier.

"Yes sir!" the limpet said. "Right this way." She dipped down to pick up a satchel and slung it over her shoulder.

Judging by the boxy outlines poking at the leather bag, it was filled with quite a few books.

"So... child, are you a mage? An aspiring wizard, perhaps?" I asked.

If she was an adept then that would open up entirely new avenues to question her through before I tossed her into the lake.

"A wizard? Like those in the imperial court?" the limpet asked. She adjusted her glasses with the palm of her hand, then shook her head. "No. I wish. Finding that kind of path to cultivation... that would be incredible. Is that what mister is? A wizard?"

My appearance under my current illusion certainly didn't give the impression that I was any sort of fighter. "Yes," I said. "I am a wizard." It even had the benefit of being true.

The limpet's eyes shone. "So incredible. Are you looking for an apprentice?"

"I might be," I said. Perhaps some decades down the line I would look for an apprentice. I doubted it though.

In all likelihood, I'd exhaust my curiosity and return to my nearly-eternal sleep before long. "Now, enough about that. Tell me about this town and this sect."

The limpet's mouth worked, then she nodded seriously and straightened her back. "This is Venom's End," she said. "How did you come here without knowing that?"

"I'm sorry, are you the one asking questions now?" I asked.

The limpet flinched. "Sorry. I'm not being a very good apprentice, am I?"

"No, you're not," I agreed. "My question?"

"Um, one moment!" She paused to rummage through her satchel, soon coming out with a small notepad and a charcoal pencil.

"Let me just note down your questions so that I can answer all of them."

I nodded. That was sensible.

"You're very organized," Alex said.

Limpet nodded. "That I am. I might have been kicked out of seven sects, but not once because I'm not a hard worker!"

"What are these sects, anyway?" I asked.

She scribbled down the question beneath the others. "Okay! First question. This town is called Venom's End. It's run by the Four Venoms Sect, which is in turn run by the great master Weiyuan of the Coiling Serpent."

The limpet's pencil scratched a line across the question.

"Question two! The two disciples were carried off to the local physician's place. Lesser disciples need to pay for their care, so they can't just return to the compound."

Another scratched-off line.

"Question three! Sects, what are they? Um... that's a hard one to answer. I'm sure mister knows."

"I may have an idea," I said.

"Is... are you one of the great masters?" she asked. "Wait, no, no questions, sorry. Right! So, the sixteen sects are all schools that teach different forms of cultivation. Some are secretive, others are less so and will accept anyone. If you're really good, you can transfer from sect to sect to learn all of their secrets and arts, and if you do that, you can join the seventeenth sect at the Jade Seat, or even become a Guard of the Throne."

"You're rambling," I said. We were making decent time crossing the city. Venoms End (which was an objectively terrible name) wasn't all that big, and we had started near the centre, so our uphill trek to the compound that housed the Four Venoms Sect wasn't very far.

"Sorry!" Limpet said. "I do that... a lot. Anyway. A sect is an organization built around the teaching of a single cultivation art. Sometimes it will do more than that, like worship a kami, or have some duties beyond just teaching, but mostly it's about the art and the betterment of the Empire."

"And how do these schools differ?" I asked.

"Ah, um." The limpet scribbled the question down. "Each school teaches a variation on the art. The sixteen are all divided by element. Earth, Water, Fire and Wind. So most of their skills centre around one of those. The Four Venoms school teaches the poison arts and alchemy. The others... do you want me to go through all sixteen?"

"No," I said. As interesting as her rambling was, it was still rambling and I was growing tired of it. I would probably learn a lot more from the books I'd collected and was about to collect from this Four Venoms sect.

That the sect was a tool of a larger government was reassuring. That meant that they likely had a bureaucracy in place to accommodate my needs.

On the other hand, the city seemed poorly run, which didn't bode well for that same system.

"I have a map," the limpet said. She turned halfway around and started to rummage through her bag.

And then, because she was as clumsy as she was loud, she tripped over her foot and went flying.

Alex dipped down, both hands snapping out and catching the girl mid-tumble. "Careful, Small Annoying One."

"Ah! Thank you!" the limpet said. She was blushing quite profoundly as she extricated herself from Alex's arms. "Here's my map!" she declared as if she hadn't nearly smashed her face even more.

I had the illusion before my face raise an eyebrow as I took a rolled piece of parchment from the limpet and held it up before me.

"Is this thing accurate?" I asked as I took in the rough shape of the continent. It was similar to what I could remember... more or less. The sea levels might have changed, and some islands were outright missing, though that could have been due to poor mapmaking.

The main crux of the map wasn't the locations of cities though, rather it pointed to various sects across the empire. Hardly secretive if they had their locations printed on a map. Or maybe these were red herrings.

"It's more or less accurate," the limpet said. "I didn't pay much for it. And I might have gotten a bit lost a few times. But for the most part, well, it got me here."

"You've travelled a lot?" I asked.

"I want to grow strong and fierce," she said with all the strength and ferocity of a mangy puppy.

"That's nice," I said. "This map may prove useful."

"You can keep it if you want," the limpet said.

"That's generous. Thank you." Looking up, I found that we had arrived onto the street that led to the Four Venoms compound. It was an impressive place, with tall walls of fitted stone painted in stark white and capped with a tiled roof all around.

The taller buildings, all with pagoda-like roofs, poked out above the walls and seemed to be in good repair, especially compared to the city around us.

Not that the area around the compound was poor. It seemed as if this was the place where the richer citizens lived.

Two young men were at the gate, both in the flowing garbs that I took to be some sort of uniform worn by the Four Venoms sect.

They were eyeing us, only the top half of their faces visible over their high-collared outfits.

I turned around and looked out over the city. From the height we were at I could see over to the lake in the distance where a few boats were navigating back over to the harbour. Perhaps the fishermen returned for lunch?

"This is it," the limpet said. "They, ah, might have kicked me out earlier this week after I failed their initiation."

I was curious, but not enough to ask. It wasn't as if I intended to try and pass any sort of test here. "That's nice," I said. "Say, have you ever been teleported before?"

"No?" she said. "Wait, can mister teleport?"

"Obviously. Do you know how to swim?"

I would feel a very slight pang of something akin to guilt if she drowned.

"I do," she said. "You need to learn if you want to join the Sect of the Storm Lake. They still failed me though."

"And the dog?"

"Fang knows how to swim too," she said.

"Brilliant," I said. Reaching down, I tapped at her satchel and drew a quick rune into its side with a cantrip for engraving leather.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Waterproofing enchantment," I said. "I wouldn't want your books to get wet."

She blinked at me in a very limpet-ish way. "Huh?"

I poked her head and touched her dog in reply.

"Teleport."

They both disappeared quite satisfyingly.

"Oh look," Alex said while pointing out towards the lake.

I glanced over just in time to see twin splashes near a boat and could just barely catch her distressed scream in the air.

"Good show," I said. "And good riddance. Now, let's go see about this sect and what knowledge it holds."

***

Answer to the last riddle: A parachute

Today's riddle: What is it a child can make that no one can ever see?

Thank you for reading!

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