"Look, I apologize for stepping out of bounds. The problem is the Overseer, has a problem with me and he's taking it out on you."
He stepped back. Confused. "When did you and him have problems? He's a taskmaster but if he gets his part of the bargain he's not too much of a problem to deal with."
"That's not the problem." I sighed. I didn't want to be the one to have brought this trouble on my benefactor. "Do you remember the spirit beasts?"
He nodded his head yes. "Well, he wanted to get a cut from the proceeds. From the selling of them."
"Then why didn't you just give it to them? Money is never worth your well being."
He sat down on the stool next to the table. "They are our betters Khan, we can't do anything about that. Crossing them just makes them lash out against us." He took in a deep shaky breath. "Trust me. I know"
'What? Just give in?' I struggled to remove the look of disgust that came on my face. Thankfully he was staring down at the ground, hunched further than usual.
I put my hand on his shoulder, feeling like older than I was. "I have money, leaving this side of the Mudfoot district will not be hard."
He shook my hand off. "Do you know how much influence the Overseer has? We'd have to be at the edges of the Mudfoot district. Damn near the Silverscale one for us to escape his influence. And even then he has friends in high places."
"How much would a house there cost? It can't be that much."
"Can't be that—Khan, do you even hear yourself? It cost at most five to six silver to build a house here. Over there, you'd need at least 70 silvers and that's if you were lucky.
You don't get it Khan, it's best to just apologize and move on. We might go into debt but we'll survive."
I didn't know what words to say, but I was quickly running out of patience.
I wanted to help this man. This whole thing was my fault. But he was getting in his own way!
I took out my pouch of silver and flung it on the table. Hard enough so he could hear.
The pouch hit the table with a clatter loud enough to make the him pause.
It wasn't a wise choice to do something like that because in a place like this, the walls were deaf till they heard coins.
He raised his head up, his eyes didn't go to the coins—they went to me first, as if searching my face for a trick. I held his gaze. This was real.
Shocked at what he saw, he reached out his hand to take the pouch, stopping an inch from the glowing things, "May I?"
"Of course you can. I just want you to move out of this place"
He cupped some of the coins in his hands, they had spilled out of the bag and onto the table, then quickly put them back.
As if scared they were going to bite him. "Where did you get all this money?"
I shrugged, "Hunting, trading, doing deals, why do you think I'm out of the hut so much?"
"Khan this is impossible, how can you make so much?" He looked around, dazed, then pinched himself, hard.
Eisshh, "You're rich." He exclaimed, "Khan you're rich"
Before I could reply, a gust of wind caught the half-latched door at the back of the house and blew it open with a groan.
I turned sharply, startled—but it was only two small shapes darting in—Huo Xue and Huo Mei, their faces bright with surprise and relief. "Khan!" they cried in unison.
"You're awake!" Huo Xue ran and clutched my leg like she thought I might vanish.
"You've been gone for three days," she said, her voice low and careful, like she was still afraid speaking too loud might shatter something. "Po said you might not wake up."
Her eyes darted to my bandaged arm, and I saw her jaw tighten—not in fear, but in that strange, serious way kids sometimes get when they've seen too much and haven't found the words for it yet.
Huo Mei stood just behind her clutching the hem of her dress in both hands. , her wide eyes shimmering. "We thought you were going to sleep forever," she whispered.
Huo Mei finally stepped closer and wrapped her arms around my waist, then quickly stepped back as if unsure she was allowed to.
"You look better than before," she mumbled. "But you still smell like burnt tea."
It was only then I realized how pale they looked, how tightly they were holding on to me. I placed a hand on each of their heads, trying not to wince as my arm protested. "I'm alright now," I said softly.
'When had they gotten so close to me?'
Huo Qianlei cleared his throat and gave them a gentle wave. "Alright, girls. Out. Let us talk for a while."
They looked like they might protest, but he gave them the look and they scurried off, though not without a few backward glances.
He couched in a way that wasn't a cough to get my attention again. "You should have said something about how rich you were."
"I wouldn't call myself rich. Cultivators are truly rich."
I thought back to the moment I found out about the healing potions price. And it was for a discarded version.
While I had been here for months now, I rarely bought anything except if Huo Qianlei left his daughters in my care.
Apart from that all I did was trade with Tarig and Azul. I knew I had money, but seeing his reaction made me realize how much I really had.
Huo Qianlei brought a finger to his lips, "hush, you don't know if they might be around."
I asked, "Who? Cultivators?"
He shushed me again. "All that matters is that we can move now, we could even get new clothes for Huo Xue and Huo Mei, not only that but…"
He trailed off, slowly stopping before he put the money back down on the table, "it's your money, what do you want us to do with this?"
"Exactly what I'm saying. Move" I walked closer to him, "you can just move. I can get us a place where even that old cow, Bai won't have to worry about a place to stay."
He shook his head, worried, "But how will we pay you back?"
Pay me back? Was he joking? I looked at his face and he was serious.
I shot down the offer quickly. "No no no. You don't have to pay me back. Even if I didn't owe you for this I'd owe you for letting me stay here all this while. Especially before the awoken moon test."
"Fine, we'll move, when do you want us to go?"
"Today."
My arm was killing me.
I was on my way to visit Yao Po.
She had said to make sure I visit her to get the arm checked, but I felt more and more like It was going to fall out.
The walk to Yao Po's apothecary took me through the winding gut of the Mudfoot district. The packed dirt squelched beneath my boots, and the air reeked of wet mildew and rotting fruit. Someone had slaughtered a chicken recently—the faint coppery tang of blood still clung to the breeze.
It was funny, I had never felt like this in the district before.
Like I wasn't alone in Mudfoot, not really. Like I was being watched.
I could see the fleeting eyes here and there. The scuttering feet.
What irked me most was the eyes.
They had a way of growing from the alleyways, from behind drying laundry and rusted grates. I pulled my robes tighter.
I broke into a slow jog.
My arm throbbed with each step. It wasn't just pain anymore.
I reached her apothecary quickly enough, knocking so she would let me in.
Yao Po pulled open the door before I could knock twice. Her eyes were sharp and clouded all at once, like stormglass.
She smelled of camphor and crushed leaves, and something faintly sweet—peach blossoms maybe. The apothecary behind her was dim, cluttered with herbs strung from beams like upside-down bouquets.
Jars filled with strange roots and dried eyes lined the walls. The place always felt alive, like it was breathing with a pulse of its own.
"Khan! What took you so long? Come in quickly"
I rushed to sit down on the small stuffed mattress she had laid down on the ground.
I tried to stay upright, biting down on my tongue. "Just let me rest a moment," I muttered, but my vision swam and turned red at the edges. I couldn't stop shaking. After a few deep breaths I said, "Thank you Yao Po, I just… I just,..."
The pain flared behind my eyes—
I blacked out.