A pause. “Lily? Sorry, just a surprise… usually only annoying people call me on this number.” Another, longer pause. “Don’t tell anyone I said that. I’m… no, of course I gave Mingtian the office without a landline. Wait one second.”

  Almost five minutes later, a different, and far more familiar voice rang through the speakers. “Lily? Not that I’m not glad to hear from you, but what’s wrong?”

  “How do you know something’s wrong?”

  “You’re calling me in the middle of your expedition. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something’s amiss.”

  “Yeah yeah.” She rolled her eyes, fighting back an inappropriate laugh. This was not the time nor place for laughter. “It’s…” she sighed. “They took it, Mingtian.”

  “What?”

  “The fruit— apparently it’s something called an Eightfold Yang Golden Dragonfruit, and probably super powerful too, and they took it. He thought I stole it, and apparently he’s working with or for some sort of Twin Pines Clan and he said the police won’t help which if he told me who he works for he’s probably not lying and— they took it, Mingtian. They took the fruit.” She realized she was rambling, and snapped her mouth shut with an audible clack. Heavens, wasn’t this pathetic? Trained in cultivation for months and she could do nothing.

  The silence that followed her words was heavy. Even though she knew that Mingtian was a mortal half the city away, she couldn’t help but feel like something truly wrathful had descended on the area around her. Then, as soon as the feeling came, it was gone. “I… see.” It was the most unemotional she’d ever heard the usually friendly man. “You did the right thing. I can’t tell you the number of times—” he paused, just faintly, so short as to make her think she’d missed it— “young cultivators have made fools of themselves taking on fights they couldn’t win. It was a wise decision to let your seniors handle this one.” She blushed slightly. He’d never know that she’d totally intended to get the fruit back by herself. “Stay right there. Don’t do anything.” Slowly, she realized that Mingtian was angry. She shuddered to imagine what that looked like. “Your Master will handle this one.” Then, a second later— “I’m still not your master by the way.” Right.

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  Then the line went dead, and she was left wondering— how? Slumping to the ground next to the pay phone, she couldn’t help but wonder of Mingtian, a mortal, would be able to do anything. Sure, he was a bit more respected as a witness than a random orphan like her, but…

  She smirked to herself. Who was she, doubting her Master? What an unfilial disciple…

  “Good. From what I’ve seen of you, I half expected to find you bleeding out on the street.” She leapt to her feet at the sound of an unfamiliar— slightly familiar? Voice, glancing around and finding nothing— until suddenly, like an image resolving out of deep water, a woman stood in front of her, wearing the white and red robes she’d dreamed about her entire life and holding in her hand a long, heavy jian in one hand and a little paper star in the other. “You’ll have to thank your Master for me. I’ve been getting bored, sitting around in East Saffron all day.” That was an outer sect disciple. From the Bloody Saffron Sect. Their outer sect disciple, she realized with a start. “Come on.” The woman’s words snapped her out of her stunned silence— “you won’t want to miss this.” Before she realized it, she was being dragged back towards the alchemist-thief's house. Heavens above, she was touching an outer sect disciple…

  She shivered with excitement. Suddenly, the day didn’t seem quite so bad.

  “Stay here.” The woman dropped her at the shrine right across from the alchemist’s house. “This is the place? No, don’t answer that, I can already feel the vile magics that permeate its walls. I am going to relish this.” She made a handseal, and a second later, and the whole world seemed to fuzz for a second before returning to normal— but for the strong tang of iron on the air. “Don’t move. I’ve used a technique to make you essentially invisible to the casual observer, but it won’t last if you move around. Just… watch.” She shot her a grin, and it was not a nice grin. Then, she walked up to the door, sword in hand, and—

  Pulled it open and stepped in, closing it softly behind her. Lily couldn’t help but let out a slightly disappointed sigh at the non-action. That had been anticlimactic. She’d been looking forward to—

  The front of the house exploded, and the stared in stunned shock as the corpulent alchemist was bodily thrown to the ground with a sickening thud. “You dare?! To spit on the face of the Bloody Saffron Sect’s magnanimity— have you no shame?” The man scrabbled back, babbling in fear as the sect disciple strode out of the gaping hole in the wall, sword in hand and wreathed by an aura of bloody, indomitable power.

  That. Now that was the sort of drama she’d been expecting from a real cultivator.

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