“Don't even remember that, huh?” Fera asked about the Tribune that stole my cultivation, finally showing signs of grieving over my lost memory. “This guy... he kept stalking me. And you… Look. It's a pretty simple story. You beat ‘em up and he used daddy's influence or whatever to get you expelled for it. Simple cruelty. That’s all there is to it.”

  I stared at her as if she were a man having sex in my bedroom. She picked up my gaze and stared at me blankly and then I asked, rather aggressively: “And you're here?”

  “Huh?” she asked dumbly.

  “I said…” I took a deep breath and looked around, hoping to find someone to validate my feelings, and said, “Your situation almost got me killed, and now you've returned to throw it in his face?”

  Her eyes flashed with fury. “Hey! What kind of crap is that?”

  “Crap? Have you never heard of common sense?”

  “Common sense? So now this is about common sense?” Her eyes trembled aggressively, baffled by the sudden switch. She fell silent, studying me for twenty seconds, eyes welling with tears. “So this was all for nothing?”

  Her countenance shifted and her glistening eyes boiled over with anger.

  “We're just supposed to say ”

  Her defiance spurred a memory within me—a conversation I had with Rena. One night in her room, lying naked beside her in bed, she had said:

  “He” referred to her father, but I was unconcerned.

  I replied.

  I took a deep breath and reflected on it in the present.

  , I thought, activating Divine Eyes. I examined my pathetic broken meridian chains and jangled bone structure.

  Rena’s father was once the strongest man in the Immortal Plane. So I trained until I was stronger than him before I courted his daughter. In this situation, I was an invalid and Fera was a High Foundation cultivator which wasn’t even strong enough to use elemental techniques. It was not even remotely the same.

  Yet I couldn’t find it in me to deny Fera’s passion. Her words hit a nerve, as I had ended up in Kain’s body as a result of the same mindset.

  “This Renly,” I said after some silence. “He tried to kill me a couple months ago.”

  I pointed at my face and she covered her mouth, taking a step back.

  “So the reason you can't remember is…”

  “Because he caved my face in with a rock.”

  She looked at me up and down. “But… you're alive.”

  “I was lucky.” I pointed at the scar on my neck. “They thought I was dead. Now, I’ve survived because of the curfew and possible surveillance. But you? You are not. If you keep doing this, they will come for you—and I can’t protect you this time.”

  Tears streaked down Fera’s cheeks. “I'm so sorry… I'll never hurt you again…” With those words, she disappeared into the wind, leaving the door open behind her.

  I felt nothing for her pain right then.

  Kain Reskco killed himself and now I had his body. I would not apologize for rising from his ashes, or for burning the rest of what he had left. So I pushed her out of my mind, and swallowed the pill she had provided me. Then I cultivated.

  Fera may not have bought what she wanted with this pill, but I felt it was fair for the hell she had caused both Kain and me.

  I closed my eyes and began to circulate.

  Mortal medicine is called medicine, but when the ingredients contain Qi, it’s called heximedica. This medica was a cardinal healer, made from a unique celestine for healing strained cardinal meridians. Cardinal meridians weren’t typical meridians. They were internal, accepting Qi from the dantian and supplying it to the limbs, chest, and head to reinforce the body and make it stronger. Due to the internal nature of the meridians, the tribune didn’t completely fry those channels, so if I healed them a bit, I would be able to reinforce my body with cultivation and activate spirit jade from both hands. It wouldn’t be much, but I would be able to use techniques, and I wouldn’t break my knuckles when fighting cultivators. So I accepted it greedily.

  The medica was stronger than I expected. Combined with my breathing experience, it healed the pathways into my cardinal meridians to the point that they could heal on their own with enough time. It was a miracle.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I thought, changing my finger stance. For whatever reason, that fact bothered me. Not solely for her situation—I am not above robbing people for resources or even killing them under certain circumstances. Yet this woman and her story that somehow pierced through my apathy continued to draw parallels to my life.

  I didn’t like thinking about her, so I stripped my shirt, walked outside, stood in a stable area suitable for training, and activated a thin veil of Define Eyes to watch my surroundings. Then, I punched the air. I would need to do a thousand a day for each fist for half an annual before I could move with relative freedom—and the starting point was that day.

  With every punch, I forgot about Fera, Rena, and my situation.

  I was at peace.

  Five days passed by in a blur. I practiced punches in the morning, ate modest lunches I made with groceries from the Quarter District market across town, and then cultivated at night. From time to time, I thought about Fera and her foul mouth and that finance crippling pill. I thought about her remorse and pain, and I couldn't help but compare her to Rena. Yet she was gone so I slowly let her memory fade until a barrage of obnoxious knocks reminded me why I originally hated her.

  “Kain!” she yelled. “I know you're in there!”

  My cheek twitched and I didn't respond.

  “Just because you're not near the window doesn't mean I don't know!” she yelled. “I have Divine Eyes, idiot.”

  A full throb of a headache pulsed through my mind and I stood up.

  “Kain!” she screamed, knocking again. “I know you—”

  I yanked open the door as she pounded, so the momentum made her fall into me. She grabbed my tunic to find purchase, but even after righting herself—she didn’t let go. Instead, she hugged me and said:

  “Don't leave me…” She started crying. “Please… don't leave me.”

  I felt a burning desire to peel her off like an insect and throw her out the door, but I didn't. Instead, I closed the door and said:

  “Never show your emotions in public. Cultivators will seize upon anything you give them.”

  “Is that so?” She laughed and cried as she held me.

  I looked down at her tiny body. “Now can you…?”

  “Just…” she whispered. “Just a minute. Just give me a minute. I just…”

  I took a deep breath as I held her, as standing like a wooden plank as an unromantic woman sobbed on my chest was a humiliating pose worthy of blackmail. My options were accept and reject so I did the former. For whatever reason, I did the former. So I stood behind it.

  Once she finished, she sat in my bed and said: “Can I watch you work out?”

  I cocked my head. “What?”

  She fidgeted nervously. “Well, you clearly have a routine. Everyone's talking about it and you clearly want to do it so I don't want to bother you. So… um… can I… watch you?”

  I frowned as I studied her pitiful face..

  “Do as you wish. But we'll stay inside. I refuse to let you present yourself like that in public.”

  Fera giggled and wiped her eyes as I took off my shirt and began practicing punches. And for the first time, due remained silent, watching my total concentration, eying the body of a manual laborer, she relaxed and showed interest in me—not Kain—and I didn't like that.

  When I finished and dumped water over my head outside, she said, “Seems the pill worked.”

  I nodded. “It worked better than expected.”

  She smiled distantly. “It's funny. The old you wouldn't have taken it. You would've been like: ” She used a mocking burly voice. “And you’d do that before and after our fight. Stupid idiot.”

  I kept silent.

  “Hey Kain?”

  I took a deep breath. “Yes?”

  “You didn't kill yourself. Did you? I mean, you didn't kill Kain. Did you?”

  “What are you on about?” I asked.

  “Nothing…” I gave her nothing but she still smiled slightly, hollowly, mournfully. Then she said, “I gotta go. See you tomorrow, Kay?”

  Fera didn't let me answer. She ran out with light steps, permitting me to cultivate in peace.

  She came the next day in the morning, then again and again and again. Her topic of conversation was childish and she had a fiery temper, but Rex was generally right—

  It was nice.

  There was no one else to keep me company, and while I didn't need it, humans are social creatures by nature, so I let her come by.

  This happened for a while until there was a strange turning point.

  Fera was outside before I started training one morning. She wasn't standing. She was just sitting out on a rock on the cliff’s edge, facing the frosty horizon.

  “Yo,” she said playfully.

  “Is there a reason you're sitting on a cliff’s edge?” I asked.

  “It's just a ten foot drop. I'm a cultivator, you know.”

  “It's just a… are you a child?”

  She sent me an offended glare. “Are you serious right now?”

  “So yes,” I concluded. I was not her keeper so I wouldn't chastise her further, but it did bother me, so after about five hundred punches, I studied her yawning face and said, “You understand that I, a lowly mortal, could kick you past the next terrace and cripple you, yes?”

  She smiled and looked up as her hair ruffled in the breeze.

  “Then I suppose I would deserve it.”

  “If you think I will mine romanticism from your insanity, you are sorely mistaken.”

  She looked at me and giggled then looked up at the clouds again.

  After I finished training, the sun was at its meridian and she was pulling at her blouse to let in air as she complained about the heat.

  “Don't you have classes?” I asked.

  “Nah,” she said. “I took off the cycle. Closed cultivation, I called it. But Flora knows I'm here. She likes you, you know? Well, the old you, at least. She's never met you, but I guess I talk more about you than I thought.“

  I didn't know how to answer, so I didn't.

  “Say,” she said brightly. “You wanna get something to eat?”

  I thought about it. I was still very malnourished and too focused on cultivating to build muscle so I said, “Sure. But I'm buying. I refuse to validate your poor financial decisions.”

  Her eyes glittered and she grabbed my arm but I pulled it back coldly.

  “None of that,” I said.

  There was only one woman in my life and it didn't matter how charming or beautiful the women I met along the way, it didn't matter how long it took, or how hopeless my situation became, I spent the better part of fifty thousand years to court a single woman and I would not betray her. Until I confirmed she was dead with my own two eyes, I would never yield on this point or even flirt with romance. For my word is absolute, in life and death—cruelty and war.

  “Oh…” she whispered, taken aback, confused, and slightly terrified. “Okay then! Off we go.”

  She led us to a restaurant in the city that was remarkably cheap despite serving meat. I hadn't eaten good food in awhile and I enjoyed it. Later that day, I said, “Will you show me around? I need clothes.” She took me shopping and I bought a cloak, regular clothing, and eyed an array shop.

  , I thought.