The knock resonated throughout the entire Circle. Two deep thumps, the tone of which matched what I would expect from the thick front gates.

I felt traces of Nebula on it, meaning it was probably related to similar tricks I'd witnessed (and used myself) to project one's voice. Only applied to the knocking on the front gate. It made me wonder if the Stormwind Circle had done it themselves or if it was an effect our unknown visitors had create.

István looked over to me. "That is new." he said. Viktor, the third member of our conversational party, just shrugged his shoulders.

"We have come to challenge the Stormwind Circle!" A voice rang out from the direction of the gate, also artificially enhanced. I could hear some voices from the gate guards, but even with my hearing they were too faint to make out anything. I imagined there had been some sort of 'state your business' type conversation we weren't privy to.

Celistar suddenly appeared next to me. "Stay here," she said, before disappearing again. I could tell from the feeling she was still out and about, but in a few seconds I felt that disappear as well. What on earth was going on?

A few moments later, I heard Qīwù attempting to stop people in the hallway, and told her to allow them through, then come in herself. My whole family piled into the meeting space along with a few people I didn't recognize, probably people from Viktor's company I hadn't interacted with yet.

Brother Cháo showed up next, probably drawn by the commotion moving so many people within the building generated. I gestured him over and he eagerly complied, as we had a pretty good rapport and he seems to be overwhelmed by the number of people in the space.

Something I could totally empathize with.

I had Qīwù open the shutters to let some cross-ventilation flow through the space as before turning to Brother Cháo.

"What is going on?" I asked, rather bluntly. To be perfectly honest, I had forgotten exactly how to address him with all the vagaries of our difference in station and had resorted to the fall back Viktor used – it only really mattes if someone has the power to correct you for it.

Apparently this was fine as Brother Cháo didn't even blink at the form of address. "It appears another sect has come to challenge us for some reason, and they are using a pretty substantial delegation to do so. Many senior members with powerful cultivations have come along."

He leaned in close to me, "I believe, Venerable, that there is some form of subterfuge afoot… there is no reason for them to show up in such force. But that's just speculation on my part."

"I see no reason to doubt your judgement." I said. "Any idea who is visiting us?"

Brother Cháo gave a little bit of a smile at the mention of 'us', before he got up and walked to the window, before drawing runes in thin air, something I'd seen István and a few other people do but really didn't quite grok the concept of myself. I should really remember to ask about these things when chatting to Celistar.

It should be worth noting as part of my 'self-improvement' recommended by the Moon Fairy that I had fundamentally altered my aura sight to be something that was constantly active in the background. It was just there. I'd even practiced with István and Viktor to reduce the 'flashlight' effect of my eyes down to a shimmer that was only apparent from very close range.

I could still go full up searchlight, eyes-a-blazin' if I wanted to for whatever reason. That wasn't the case by default, though. As it was now, there was a subtle overlay of the patterns of Nebula around me on otherwise normal vision. It was very useful, something that let me progress elsewhere faster as well. Such as here - where I didn't miss one iota of the seal's activation process as the Brother finished his last rune.

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I saw a three-dimensional shape composed of Light Aligned Nebula spring into existence, creating a lens of sorts that bent incoming light. There was more than just that though, as I could see it gathering from a much larger area than you'd expect, before somehow manipulating all of that light to go down to a smaller aperture through which was visible a very bright and clear image of the gate.

Not our side though, the other side. Which was very confusing.

And very cool. Not going to lie. Definitely needed to get my hands on that trick.

Brother Cháo peered at the image intently. There was a delegation of people, as he'd mentioned some with clearly higher social status, standing at the front. Their formation was very rigid, composed of two straight lines organized in a very obvious hierarchy, with no one but the frontmost speaking to the gate guards. At the very back stood an assortment of people who I'm pretty sure were some sort of servants. They were hard to see in the image, but something seemed off.

I decided to withhold my judgement as there was only so much I could glean from this view.

Brother Cháo was similarly staring at them, but for a different reason - he couldn't identify them.

"My apologies, Venerable, but I don't recall which sect this is. They look very familiar but I don't remember why this would be so. They definitely aren't one of the local ones, so they must have been traveling for quite some time to get here."

Looking at the amount of carts they had brought with them seemed to back up his statement, as they had at least a dozen, positioned behind all the members with their red and black robes but before the plain-clothed ones at the back.

He kept staring, as several members moved out to greet the delegation, and I got annoyed as many of the members in the delegation refused to even look at these greeters. Didn't your Gran teach you any manners? Mine did.

I even remembered them some most of the time.

Eventually, something changed and the gate opened. Immediately, the view in Brother Cháo's seal shifted and we were looking at the inside of the gate as the doors moved ponderously through their range of motion.

We heard another amplified shout, and then the entire column proceeded forwarded at once. They walked in the same rigid manner in which they had stood, almost in a lockstep with the group at the lead, but it gave me more the impression of fear than of pride, at least form those in the rear. Some of the people from the Circle had come out to the roadside to gawk at the progression, something I heard Brother Cháo mention was a sign of things being 'too peaceful' lately. I had no idea what sort of time period 'lately' was referring to, as certain figures such as Celistar were very, uh, 'wise' by my world's standards.

As the procession wound its way in to the inner reaches of the sect, I saw a procession of people I recognized as sect Elders wind its way down from the Main Hall to meet them. I'd had surprisingly little interaction with these individuals, something I strongly suspected was intentional on the part of the Sect Head himself. Rumors had made it to my ears - mostly because of Qīwù's crazy skills at vacuuming up gossip - that he feared that I would usurp his place due to the favor I had with the Founder.

I may have laughed a little too had at that one. Like I wanted any more responsibility than I already had. Luckily for me, the messenger herself had just thought I was amused by the absurdity of the rumor, rather than fully convinced it was the actual truth.

Asking the girl where she got her news from had revealed something she called the 'DNN', or 'disciple news network'. I wasn't sure if that was a direct translation or if Steeve was just messing with us in some small way. That seemed to be the kind of fun she liked, although it was a bit disconcerting to have your whole reality subject to the flights of fancy of an eccentric vulpine.

The procession had made it up the hill when I heard a distinct ringing noise. It was a metallic clash that rang out each time they took a step.

"That's it," Brother Cháo said, upon hearing it. When no further explanation came forth, I prompted him.

"If it would suit the Brother to enlighten us," I said, using the sort of poking-of-fun method I'd head used by some of the younger disciples to tease each other.

"Ah! Ah!" he said, as if startled. "My sincere apologies, Venerable. I realized, or should I say, 'recalled' who they were, on hearing that noise. It's a distinct feature of their Order. They are the Iron Veil."

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