The rest of that evening passed in a glow of food, carefully curated conversations that steered away from anything too dark for the girls, and familial warmth. While Uncle Kho and Auntie Caihong were very nice to both girls, it was clear that they were more focused on Ai. Falling Leaf surprised Sen by taking up the slack and lavishing extra attention on Zhi, who eventually drifted off to sleep in the ghost panther’s lap. Even after the girls were put to bed, Ai possessively hugging a shadow ball, and Zhi snuggling a stuffed doll she took everywhere with her, the conversations stayed on the light side. Everyone knew there were more serious conversations coming, but no one seemed to be in a hurry to start them. That suited Sen just fine. Eventually, he did ask a question that he didn’t necessarily need an answer to, but that he knew Fu Ruolan was going to demand within two seconds the very next time he saw her.

“So, how long were you thinking about staying?” asked Sen.

“Looking to get rid of us old people already?” asked Uncle Kho as the corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement.

“Not at all,” answered Sen with a smile. “But, if you’re only thinking of staying for a few days, it doesn’t make sense for me to make you your own galehouse.”

Auntie Caihong gave him a wry smile. “That name. It’s a little on the nose.”

“I didn’t come up with it,” said Sen. “And I have to call them something.”

“I suppose that’s true. I was thinking that we might stay for a while. Ming is bound to show up at some point, so we need to make sure that Ai loves us best before he turns up being all gruff and grandfatherly.”

“Caihong,” said Uncle Kho in an amused but chiding tone.

“What? You’ve seen how he is with children. Honestly, it’s annoying. The man’s name alone is enough to send hardened sects screaming in terror, but children take one look at him and decide he’s just the best thing that walks the world.”

Sen looked to Uncle Kho and asked, “Is that true?”

“It’s not exactly that way. She’s exaggerating thi—” started Uncle Kho before getting cut off.

“Yes!” insisted Auntie Caihong. “It’s exactly that way. It’s like he’s using a technique on them.”

“Is he?” asked Sen.

“No,” admitted Auntie Caihong. “Which may make it even more annoying.”

“He makes them feel safe,” said Falling Leaf, chiming into the conversation for the first time in a while.

“What do you mean?” asked Sen.

“He is a dragon in all but name. Ancient. Powerful beyond reason. A living, breathing nightmare for his enemies, but he would never see children as his enemies. It would never even occur to him that they could be his enemies. At worst, he might simply dismiss them. Should violence come, though, they can sense that he would shelter them beneath his wings. And what more absolute safety could there be than the Feng’s protection?”

Everyone considered that in thoughtful silence for a few moments before Auntie Caihong spoke up.

“How am I supposed to go on being unreasonably annoyed with him now?” she demanded of no one in particular.

Sen and Uncle Kho both chuckled while Falling Leaf gave her a curious look. They spoke deep into the night before Sen finally excused himself to go outside and raise another galehouse, although one that strongly resembled their home on the mountain in structure. After he finished, he turned to find Auntie Caihong and Uncle Kho standing nearby simply staring at the new structure.

“If you can make something like this,” asked Uncle Kho, “why don’t you make one for yourself?”

Sen considered the question and asked, “What would I do with it? It’s just me, Falling Leaf, and Ai. Falling Leaf doesn’t want anything. I don’t need anything that I can’t put into a storage ring. And Ai is happy as long as it’s warm, dry, and I don’t forget to make her a new shadow ball every now and then. I mean, maybe I’ll make something bigger when Ai is older or I find somewhere that I want to live permanently. For now, it’d just be empty rooms.”

Auntie Caihong shook her head. “I knew we focused too much on your training. There is more to life than cultivation, Sen.”

He offered her a helpless shrug. “Maybe there is, but I haven’t had much time to think about it. If it makes you feel any better, I’m sure Jing would be just as horrified by my humble little home. He’d probably tell me it wasn’t befitting someone of my power and stature.”

“Jing?” asked Uncle Kho.

“He means the king, dear,” said Auntie Caihong.

Uncle Kho stroked his beard. “Oh, that’s right. Some kind of strategic alliance there?”A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Nah,” said Sen. “He’s just my friend.”

Auntie Caihong giggled, and Sen gave her a questioning look. She waved a hand in the air as if to shoo some errant thought away.

“I was just imagining all of the nobles across the kingdom spitting blood if they’d heard you say that. They wouldn’t be able to decide if they were horrified by your lack of ambition, envious of your position, or terrified that the king could call on your aid.”

“It’d be all three,” said Uncle Kho. “He wouldn’t be wrong, though. About having a place befitting your power and stature. It is sort of expected that people getting as close to the nascent soul stage as you are will conduct themselves a certain way.”

“Yeah, well, I get the feeling that most people at that point have had a long time to develop other interests,” answered Sen.

“That’s probably a fair assessment,” admitted Uncle Kho.

Auntie Caihong looped her arm through Uncle Kho’s and directed a smile at Sen. “We’ll go get settled in. There’s no need to talk about everything tonight.”

“Goodnight,” said Sen and watched as Auntie Caihong and Uncle Kho disappeared into the house he’d made for them.

***

“How long will they be here for?” demanded Fu Ruolan.

Sen almost rolled his eyes at her. She’d lasted four seconds after his arrival before she’d asked the question. Since she’d lasted nearly twice as long as he’d predicted, he felt she should get some credit for that.

“They weren’t specific. They said a while.”

“A while? Could they have been any vaguer?”

“I guess they could have shrugged at me,” offered Sen.

He reassured himself that he’d provided that answer with nothing but pure helpfulness in his heart. Not that his pristine intentions were understood by the out-of-sorts nascent soul cultivator who glowered at him.

“I don’t like having them here,” said Fu Ruolan.

“You’ll notice that they aren’t here,” answered Sen. “They’re back at the town and, as near as I can tell, completely focused on keeping a certain little girl entertained. Far be it from me to say that I understand the motives or plans of my betters because history tells me that I assuredly don’t. However, I don’t think they’re particularly interested in bothering you. They didn’t even ask me where you are. Does that sound like they’re planning to make some kind of unannounced visit to your home?”

Fu Ruolan grumbled something unintelligible before she fixed Sen with a hard look.

“You just keep them in line.”

Sen returned her hard look with a lifted eyebrow and said, “Sure, that sounds probable. I’ll just order them around, and they’ll do what I say.”

“I came all the way out here so I wouldn’t have to deal with people,” complained Fu Ruolan.

“You also bartered that manual to make me stay. Auntie Caihong and Uncle Kho coming here was always a possibility, and you had to know that. It’s also quite likely that Master Feng will come and visit at some point, which you also had to have predicted.”

Fu Ruolan pursed her lips. “Perhaps. It doesn’t make it any less distracting for you or annoying for me. You know full well that I have reasons to avoid others.”

That was a point that Sen couldn’t deny.

“I’ll make sure they know that you don’t want any guests to come calling.”

“That will have to do.”

“I will say that I specifically invited my Grandmother Lu to visit. I don’t see how she could bother you, but I don’t want it to come as a surprise.”

“Grandmother Lu? The elderly body cultivator you told me about? The one who,” she seemed to search her memory, “started some kind of business?”

“That’s her.”

“I’m not concerned about her. Aside from the distraction she’ll provide. You have more than enough of those already. You’re supposed to be learning, not adopting mortal towns and starting a sect for infatuated cultivator girls who bat their eyelashes at you.”

Sen struggled to formulate an appropriate response. Part of him wanted to laugh at her description of the sect she thought he was starting. He’d more or less decided that he wasn’t going to start a sect. He was going to start something else. Something less likely to draw the ire or unwanted attention of established sects. He just needed to think it through a little longer and maybe consult with Uncle Kho a bit. Another part of him wanted to deny that he’d adopted a mortal town, but there was more than a little truth in that. He didn’t have anything like official control, but he’d more or less bypassed whatever served as local government and instituted a militia. A militia that was likely more loyal to him than it should be.

Those hadn’t been his goals. All he’d really wanted to do was give the mortals there a fighting chance against the kind of low-level spirit beasts that were likely to assault the town. Yet, there was a stark truth that whoever controlled the loyalty of the military controlled the area. For the moment, that meant him. Not that he thought the people he was training would ever do anything to harm the town. They all lived and worked there. That didn’t mean that the local elders would see it that way. They probably saw him as equal parts resource and threat. On the one hand, he was providing the locals with what could only be described as excellent training. Training he was providing free of charge, at that. On the other hand, he was an outsider and cultivator with a powerful hold over anyone who passed through the training hall. They were also far from the reach of the kingdom’s centers of power. It could very well look to them like Sen meant to set himself up as some kind of local king or warlord. And that was a problem he wasn’t entirely sure how to remedy.

“What are you daydreaming about?” snapped Fu Ruolan.

“I was just wondering if the local elders think that I’m getting ready to use their town as the foundation for trying to set up my own little kingdom.”

“Why in the world would you be thinking about that? That’s completely… It’s completely—” she trailed off as she thought it over. “Actually, that’s probably more plausible than it sounds on the surface.”

“Any advice?” asked Sen.

“You’ll need a lot more people than you have if you plan on taking over a piece of the kingdom,” said Fu Ruolan in a completely serious voice. “Wars are messy business. You need a lot of bodies for them.”

Sen gaped at her. “I meant any advice on how to convince the elders that’s not what I’m doing. I’m not, by the way. Just to be clear.”

“Oh. My mistake. I wouldn’t care if you did. I’m not particularly attached to this kingdom. It didn’t even exist when I was young,” mused the woman. “Plus, it’d be very convenient if you were the local king. I could ask for favors.”

“I’m not setting myself up as a warlord just so you can have me post soldiers to keep people away!”

“Calm down. It was just a thought. A really nice thought.”

Sen pinched the bridge of his nose. “Any advice on accomplishing my actual goal.”

“There is this one ancient stratagem you can try.”

“Which is?”

“It’s a mysterious, poorly understood technique called talking.”