Depthless Hunger

Before the worst revelation, Zae Zin Nim had been shocked for a moment when Omilaena had grabbed her. The other woman's touch had been so forceful, yet it didn't seem like she was reverting to her old self. Her hands had felt tense yet confident, touching her only because it was urgently necessary. And then she had explained, which washed away that petty discomfort.

Now they fled the building, hoping that they hadn't been seen and their presence would go ignored. Why was Anaelina here? Zae Zin Nim hadn't seen her since the battle at Rayakan, where she had hoped that Kai had scared the Silver Demon off for good. Maybe he had... which meant she had gone back home to Rosemount, gotten involved with this demonic sect, and now stood in their way.

They'd spent an entire year on Rosemount staying ahead of her father's cultivators, avoiding too many entanglements, slipping around bad luck... and now it seemed fate had caught up to them.

Just when Zae Zin Nim began to think they would escape the building, she felt the cool presence behind her. There were guards standing beside the doors, nothing special but enough to slow them down. They jerked to attention like puppets and shifted to bar the door.

"I thought I tasted someone familiar!" Anaelina approached them, still showing her sweet mask, but Zae Zin Nim remembered her tearing through everyone in her path for the fun of it. "Oh, it's little Hanelay Cloudspire... but that's not your real name, is it? I see you've found a new friend - won't you introduce us?"

Zae Zin Nim turned back slowly, keeping her hands ready at her sides. They could easily have killed their way through the next door, but that would only guarantee a worst case scenario. She didn't know the exact location of all the demons she'd seen before, so they could attack from any side.

"You don't look very happy to see me." Anaelina pretended to pout as she walked forward, still displaying herself wantonly. "But I'm actually glad to see you. All my struggles in Deadwaste were what earned me enough strength to rise here instead of being crushed."

"You'll forgive me for being less enthusiastic." Zae Zin Nim gave the smallest possible bow, not taking her eyes off the demonic art user. "If you really feel any gratitude, let us go about our business in peace."

"But what about that boy with you? Please don't tell me that he died, I'd be ever so disappointed."

Instead of answering, Zae Zin Nim pressed her spiritual sight until she pierced through to Anaelina's soul and saw that it had unfortunately grown more complex.

Name: Anaelina

Total Power: 530

Silver Demon: Spinel Rank (215)

Corrupt Yin Core: Level 32 (128)

Physique: E-7 (101)

Soul Level: 6 (36)

Devouring Yin (+50)

>

The fact that she was sitting at 530 Power meant that her strength had leapt immensely... but not as much as Zae Zin Nim and her allies had improved. Unless one of her new abilities, which admittedly looked rather ominous, contained some secret trap, they should be able to defeat her. The problem was that Anaelina was apparently a member of the Commonwealth Trade Guild, perhaps even the leader.

So fighting her meant fighting all the demons. She had several supporters with over 700 Power in the building and could summon more in minutes.

"Now I'm starting to feel insulted." Anaelina tilted her head back and her eyes shifted from merely pale to shining silver. "You don't want to talk?"

"There you are!"

The new voice interrupted the conversation a moment before a wall of glamours hit them all. Ceryyn entered the hallway from another entrance with a coterie of elves behind her. They had definitely restrained themselves until the moment of their entrance and it had an impact: many of the guards actively stared and one was almost drooling.

But Anaelina only looked at them coolly, unaffected. She also didn't look even slightly dimmed in the presence of the glamours, which was highly unusual. Her new abilities referred to corrupt yin, which might mean that her powers had gained a new lascivious edge.

"The Council of Elders is so curious about all these new proposals!" Ceryyn beamed as if she'd seen a long lost friend and skipped directly to Anaelina. "You've really changed things with the trade guild. I do hope you look favorably on your northern neighbors?"

"You're early." Anaelina stared back at her as if there was no question what she was doing. "Is something not to your liking?"

"Oh, not at all, but I do hope we can discuss some of the details..." Ceryyn moved to fully intercept Anaelina, still beaming. For just a moment she looked back at them and her smile vanished. She could only buy them so much time.

In the wake of Anaelina and all the elves, the guards at the door were utterly vulnerable to anything vaguely female. Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena passed them easily, then leapt into the crystal ship. This was certainly a negative development, but what could they actually do?

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"We're going to assume the worst," Omilaena said. "Alone, she's just one of your old enemies, but all of this is entangled. We need to prepare to retreat entirely."

"What about Kai?"

"We'll have to get him one way or another, but we don't have time for that now. Here, take this." Still driving, Omilaena removed her satchel and handed it over. "It's a spatial item, albeit a small and specialized one. I need you to go back to the library and grab our supplies and all the books I need. Here, you drive and I'll make you a list."

"Wouldn't it make more sense for you to get the books?" Zae Zin Nim asked. Things were moving too fast for her now - she wished she had an opponent to fight, except that would almost certainly mean that things had gone wrong.

"I probably won't be able to. We also need to tell Ceryyn what we learned - either one of us can handle that. You're going to have to trust me to handle myself and give you an opening. Then we'll meet in the east and head out to grab Kai."

They arranged the rest of the details hastily and eventually Zae Zin Nim was given a surprisingly large list of books along with the satchel. None of that aspect of the plan made any sense to her until they split up as they neared the library. Omilaena made her get out, then went on herself.

As soon as Omilaena landed, there were demonic arts users and even a true demon approaching her. She raised her hands mildly as if uninterested in fighting, even though she was ready to kill at any moment. The Gray Demon Troulon walked out to talk to her and it seemed like he was going to take her into some sort of custody.

Had Anaelina moved that quickly? Were the demons finally turning on them? There was no time to worry about that, because all Zae Zin Nim could do now was execute the plan. She'd feel better once she had Kai with her again, plus Omilaena if she was honest with herself.

It took her half the day to sneak into the servants' entrance to the Great Library, then until the next morning to creep through the stacks and find everything they needed. She had been there for months, so she had scattered minor pieces of her life across various nooks. But the majority of her time was spent hunting down the books that Omilaena had requested. They all seemed to be old and obscure texts that weren't explicitly about power, just poetry or myth that might offer hints.

Even with the experience she'd gained in the library, it took her some time. When Zae Zin Nim emerged there was still no sign of Omilaena, which made her nervous. The crystal ship sat outside the library, now bound in a restrictive field. That didn't bode well, but she would stick to the plan and leave everything to Omilaena.

After heading to the meeting point in the east and waiting for some time, Zae Zin Nim decided that it fell to her to inform the elves. She'd done the same after their infiltration of the obelisk facility, so she still remembered some of the procedures. Zae Zin Nim wrote a letter of their findings in the code and left it at the embassy, hoping that would be enough.

Did that even matter anymore? She didn't want to believe that their personal issues could cause a larger problem, but it was also grim to think that the conflicts between great powers could lead to war without their actions having any effect. In any case, there was still no sign of Ceryyn, so she had to return to the meeting point.

It was nearing noon when Omilaena suddenly arrived on the crystal ship and gestured for her to get in. She hopped into her seat, puzzled. "What happened?"

"Troulon tried to take me into protective custody," Omilaena explained as she headed east. "He's convinced that the great powers are just using this meeting as a pretext to kill each other and he wanted me to be safe. This is exactly the sort of thing I was worried about. There will be countless knock-on effects we can't anticipate."

"How did you escape?"

"Seduced him a bit and then fingernail poison." Omilaena waved her fingers, though there wasn't much playfulness left in her. "Never mind that. What have we heard from our Silver Demon friend?"

"Nothing." Zae Zin Nim could only shrug. "As far as I know, the meetings are still going on there. The elves at the embassy seemed calm and said she everyone was just conducting business."

"Not likely. Anaelina has had an entire day to react to our presence. Maybe she decided to ignore us or the meeting matter, but we can't count on that. Besides, I've burned our bridges with Troulon. I say we grab Kai and avoid this mess entirely. We need to-"

"Cultivator!" The voice roared around them and Zae Zin Nim whipped her head to the side, already knowing who she would see.

Lilaetiel crouched atop a nearby building, her eyes burning bright. She tossed a square piece of marble into the air and then jumped on it, beginning to fly after them. Her demonic cultivation fueled her ride to such speeds that she was on them in seconds, before Zae Zin Nim was prepared. The demon was reaching out already, her hands extending into qi-draining claws...

Zae Zin Nim struck the air with a palm strike, releasing a ripple of blue fire. It sent the demon tumbling backward, but Lilaetiel barely managed to catch her marble ride with one hand. Both plummeted before the demoness regained control, hopped back on, and continued pursuit.

The distance between them didn't close so fast now, so Zae Zin Nim hurled qi techniques at her opponent, barely caring about the city around them - the demoness was too strong to take lightly or worry about collateral damage. Lilaetiel continued to grin at her, no matter how much Zae Zin Nim forced her back, not even when she managed to strike her with a few qi attacks. They pushed the demoness back but seemed to be absorbed into her spirit, then she licked her lips and continued pursuing.

Abruptly the crystal ship twisted to the side, sliding in between two of the buildings. Zae Zin Nim fell and barely caught herself on the side. While she dangled, she saw Lilaetiel fail to slip between the buildings and instead crash into the side of one. When they reverted to upright she pulled herself back up, glaring at Omilaena.

"Was that really necessary?"

"Who told her about us?" The other woman looked even tenser than before. "Was it just a coincidence that she saw you?"

"What else would it be?" Zae Zin Nim asked. But Omilaena didn't say anything as they continued to escape the city, just compelled them to go faster.

Lilaetiel continued to dog them the entire time, willing to take any risk to get a chance at stealing cultivation. Her pursuit ended up curving their path slightly south instead of north after Kai, which could be a problem.

For a while it seemed like they had done it: they reached the end of the bright lights in the east. Beyond the reach of the First Crest's power there was only a region of white marble yards where markets were sometimes held. No... actually there was the Flaeren Dominion's army beyond that.

Had that been Omilaena's plan all along? The Flaeren Dominion was in theory a neutral party in all these conflicts and they were strong enough that even demons had to give them some respect. It might be off their course, but maybe the army tents were a new sort of safety.

Then Zae Zin Nim realized that none of that mattered: there was a line of enemies stretched across the marble, blocking their path. Lilaetiel hadn't been wildly attacking, she had been herding them. Anaelina stood waiting, yes, but even worse was the line of men and women in robes behind her:

Brightwind cultivators.

Their qi lashed out the next second, chains catching the crystal ship and pulling it to scrape against the white marble. Zae Zin Nim was thrown over the side and managed to flip to her feet in time to see a bright silver smile.

"We didn't get to finish our conversation earlier." Anaelina's clothing shimmered silver, constricting to cover her as she prepared to do battle. "I have some new friends who are very eager to meet you."