The m, Moriko hopped out of bed with a full day scheduled for herself. Breakfast, a little practice, work on some ideas for helping others with their passions, meet up with Ricardo and some other merts he was going to pull in for trade deals, and then she’d have some free time.

  Her pns mao st all the way through breakfast and part way into her self-training routihat was when a runner came up to tell her that Master Theodoric wished to see her. Moriko only took long enough to spsh some water on her face to off any dust, then made her way to his chambers.

  Like most High Masters, Theodoric had a small office for the first of his two rooms, giving him the space to do work as well as eain occasional guests. His door en when she arrived, so Moriko knocked lightly on the frame as she stepped inside, and then bowed iing. “You wished to see me, Master?”

  “Yes. Close the door and sit.” Theodoric waited until she was done before he began. “I’ve gotten word of the iigation. It looks like little lord Antoine Demidov may indeed have been involved with that bandit you had to deal with, Akuma.”

  It took Moriko a few moments to put the h the person, she had barely remembered his name long enough for that trial. “Oh, that dumb ass. Yeah, we were already pretty certain of that.” She frowned a little. “Though I just realized that the timing doesn’t work, from what we were told about how far north they were.”

  “Oh, it does if he sent the message before your trial. Mind, we don’t know this for sure, but he did send a messenger north right after the trial was scheduled. Specution is that he khat he wasn’t going to wirial and was deying to make sure he had people io ‘punish’ you and gave them st-minute instrus on his way out of the city.” Theodoric was frowning as he spoke. “Nobody local was involved in anything specific, the best we have is pieg together what various people saw and heard, and none of it is enough to be clusive. And of course Lord Demidov has already left the try with his retinue, so there is no one we grab to verify anything.”

  Moriko made an annoyed sound as she sidered the situation. “He’s a baron’s sht? How much weight does his family carry?”

  Master Theodoric shrugged. “pared to the empire as a whole, not a lot, but certainly more than one of our barons would, and his father's barony tains a moderately rge city. We respect our nobility, but there is an expectation that each geion tio earn that respect. The Trionean Empire grew from cultures we would sider regressive, even oppressive. They hold their noble families in high regard just for being noble. He and his family may well sider it a matter of honor to ‘put you in your pce’ or some suonsense.”

  She wao punething. That trial had been such a pain in the ass, despite all the officials doing their best to make things easy while they followed the rule of w. One of the more annoying bits had been Antoirying to insist on his full title, His Honorableness Lord Demidov, or some such crap. Kuic didn’t reize those sorts of titles, it had been codified into w at the foundation of the kingdom even. ‘Lord’ was the most he got, he wasn’t even the Baron’s heir apparent. “What we do?”

  “Not much, I’m afraid,” he replied with a sigh. “His offense against you has bee with, and all else is too circumstantial to press without there being a signifit political reason to do so, and at this point there is no reason to. All I say is be on guard.”

  Moriko houghtfully as she passed on the information back to her spouses, then smiled slightly at a request she got back. “Master, could you get me a copy of his likeness? While I’d probably reize him if I saw him, I don’t think I could describe him very well or anything, and it seems my husband and wife would both like to make sure they kly who to look out for.”

  He peered at her for a moment as he sidered her words. “So they are always right there in the back of your head?”

  “Eh, yes and no. We always have a vague sense of each other, and I could point towards the dungeon from probably anywhere, but we also always spend some effort to reduce the strength of the feeling. I felt it appropriate to send them an update, and they requested a better description. Thus my request for a drawing or something.”

  “Well, I will see what I do. I wish I could help more, but we don’t have much to go on and no specific threat, just knowledge that you have earhe hatred of aistioble from the empire, and he is willing to buy violeo use against you.”

  Moriko nodded. “I uand. Is there anything else, Master?”

  “No, you may go,” Theodoric responded with a smile.

  Moriko rose and bowed, the with her head full of a new set of worries. Worries that she did her best to set aside as she set about trying to work on beginning her path t Sakiya’s blessing. Admittedly there was a bit of a drum to work her way through, after all, was it not a bit self-serving to try and help others for the sake of earning her goddess’s favor? But it didn’t seem particurly onerous either. She had not spent much effort on looking for people to help, but her had she ever begrudged helping someo. It was mostly about taking that extra step to proactively look for people who could use her help in fulfilling their passions.

  She was starting with baby steps for the moment, she knew where to find some people she could help on their path. Moriko had no obligations at the moment, she’d been given all the time she o set her affairs in order before she left, so she was deliberately taking some of that free time to find students she could help. Specifically, she was looking for those who were reag for the skies like she was. The half-elf might only be able to take to the air for a few seds at a time so far, but that was enough to help others on their way.

  For this Moriko was fog on those who o feel the differences in their chi, to be able to focus on the flow of wind and air. Every teacher here could teach the first steps, but there were fewer avaible for any given focus or specialization.

  Many of these she started with Breathing. All forms of martial training required proper breathing teiques, but many martial forms made use of specific breathing teiques. For toug the element of air properly, it helped to be able to breathe deeply, starting with breaths that were far too deep to be taken in bat. Filling your lungs with air until your body ached was hard, but it helped fill you with chi that was tuo it.

  Doing so while standing on top of a tall tower with the wind whipping around you could help some, others o feel their bodies w with air chi. For the early stages of training, they had the tools to help with that, heavier versions of pihat would be harder to turn with one’s breath. They could also be used to gauge how much wind one was beginning to gee when practig other teiques as well, such as the early stages of a wind strike. She also remihem that any who were still having trouble whe a storm came by should get an instructor to supervise while they exposed themselves to the harsher storm winds. It was hard to always know what stimution would be the breakthrough point.

  When there were only a couple of hours left until she o rendezvous with Rioriko ended her impromptu tut and headed off for a quick bath and to ge into her uniform. She wao make a good impression after all, and it seemed more likely to help her be taken seriously by merts she didn’t know, even with Ricardo’s good word. This schedule left her at the private residence early, but fortunately Ricardo had arrived early as well and was able to introduce her to their host, a human woman named Brianna. She art of aablished mert family and was hoping to one-up her siblings by seg part of this trade deal for her family.

  Brianna simply pyed host and refused to let aalk business until all her guests had arrived. Once everyone resent and had been served some refreshments, she tapped a bell to gather everyone’s attention. “Alright everyone, our special guest here is Moriko, and she is here by Ricardo’s invitation to offer access to a special deal. This gives you the ce to get on the ground floor of a rade route, and as usual I am activating our standard fidentiality agreement. Please give her the ce to say her piece before you ask any questions. Moriko? The floor is all yours.”

  Moriko rose and gave a bow to her audience before she began her prepared speech, crafted with the help of Riordecai, and Kazue. She had done a little bit to help at her parent’s business, but this was on a different scale and she had never been a iator. “Hello, as some of you may know I am the tractor for a new dungeon born near my hometown of Riverbridge, though the word ‘new’ is plicated as the dungeon has two cores merged together aher of them is actually newborn. One is the reination of Ricardo’s daughter Kazue, by the grace of Lady Mericume, and the other is an older, once-sealed dungeon who had been on the edge of extin, named Mordecai.”

  She shook her head then, anticipating the obvious questions. “No, that story is not going to be told, it’s time-ing and personal to him. Yes, I am married to both of them, and I am not going to tell that story either. I am here to represent their business is, you don’t o know our private life, and those who do o know details already do know, to the point that the gover has worked with the churches to appoint a champion of Amirume to be their official liaison, though the newly marked Guardian is about to be sent off for some special training first. I am a member of the monastery dedicated to Lady Sakiya, though I am about to officially retire as my focus has shifted. Please feel free to verify with the Church of Passions.”

  She smiled at the gathered merts. “With that said, down to business. Ricardo has a short write-up of what a living dungeon do that will be of io traders of all sorts that he will pass around, but the basics are that a dungeon produ almost endless amount of any material or product they have a sample of, with the limitation of a daily amount of produ. So this get-together is in part te a staggered schedule, as only so many people plete a trade in a day. I have direunication with them, so I affirm bargains and sign tracts on their behalf right now. Any questions?”

  There were many of course, and she ignored any that were off-topic. There were fortunately few of those, these people were here to make money. It did take them a bit to start getting creative, but a young man helped light that off when he came to a realization. “Wait, this means that your dungeon replicate guns? they modify designs too? How many they make?” The knowledge and skills to create their own guns were present in the kingdom, but the founding arra with the Azeria d the churches of Amirume and Mericume had included provisions for bang the needs of a growing civilization with the needs of wild nature. Normal smithies already had to deal with regutions and upkeep of entments to keep the air and water , gunsmiths had even more to deal with, making gunsmithing inside of Kuic prohibitively expensive for most, and there were only so many avaible for import.

  “Yes they , and modifications also be doh suffit time for experimentation after they have a sample. Several guns be made each day, with numbers varying on the exact details of the gun, but stockpiling be difficult until you have been there in person. The details are plicated, but Mordecai is a priest of Ozuran, and taking a promise allows them to do more than they could otherwise. So depending on circumstances you may have to keep a wagon there for several days to plete the trade in stages.” Moriko answered the questions easily with Mordecai’s and Kazue’s voices in her head to guide her, making her feel more fident thaherwise would have. It was almost like having a cheat sheet for an exam.

  Now the bargaining and arguing really took off, and Moriko was able to step back to let Ricardo handle most of it. He had first dibs, but the rest were iating with each other as much as with her and Ricardo te who would focus on what markets and in what order they would get to duct their trades. She took the time to enjoy the differences in the responses of her spouses. Kazue was ied of course, and was looking forward to new books especially, but Mordecai ractically salivating at the influx headed their way.

  Zagaroth