The Iron Veil Order.

They sounded as intimidating as the sounds their marching made.

"That's kind of their whole thing," Qīwù was explaining, reverting to her tendency to run her mouth incessantly about things she was interested in once leeway was there. In this case she didn't want to say something that would make Brother Cháo look bad, and he was happy for her to take the attention off of his blunder. If you could call it that.

"They have a lot of Earth, Stone, and Metal Aligned cultivators in their ranks," she continued, leaving me inwardly confused about how 'earth' and 'stone' were different. Maybe something to do with soil? I would think that would be Nature Aligned though.

"Venerable…" Qīwù was saying, and I looked up at her. I guess I'd thought a bit too hard about the differences in Alignment and distracted myself from the conversation. Oops.

"Please, continue," I said.

"They have a history of challenging those whom they deem to be not sufficiently respecting the appropriate methods for cultivation. Methods that are their methods, of course. It's very… rigid." She said, searching for that final word.

"Does it work for them?" István asked, a sensible question for someone that was all about scientific rigor and getting repeatable results.

"Hard to say," the young lady said, "From what we know, they have a few powerful experts, and a fair-few disciples, but nothing in between. If I may extend an opinion," she said, leading to me nodding although a lot of what she said was already subjective, "Then I would say that their processes and 'cultivation legalese' – for lack of a better description – are centered around keeping the powerful in place more than anything else."

"Junior Sister Qīwù!" Said a masculine voice at the door as another person fairly barged in. "It is not your place to say such things!" He took several strides into the room, pulling his hand back in what was obviously going to be a case of `physical reeducation`. The younger girl cringed back but did nothing to defend herself.

Well, that wasn't going to stand at all.

He swung his open hand down, but instead of making contact it hit a completely immovable barrier of Nebula I had created there, effectively freezing the air in that space in place. He might as well have slapped a solid granite wall.

"It is not your place to discipline my attendant," I said quietly, getting to my feet in a single, smooth motion that may have cheated just a little bit by pushing myself up. I cheesed it even further by covering the space in just a few steps, using my power to essentially pull myself forward farther than should have been otherwise possible. I reached out a hand and set it on his shoulder, locking down the whole joint as much as possible at the point of contact with yet more Nebula.

"I will correct her if I find her out of line." I said, quietly, although I used enough amplification just for him that his whole skull was probably vibrating. His pupils got real small at this point.

"Now, get out." I flung my arm sideways, and with it, his body. I had literally thrown him out the window. For a brief moment my heart stopped when I realized that we were on an upper floor, but fortunately there was the direct stair access and accompanying balcony. So he wouldn't just be falling to his death, out there.

Probably.

I let out an inward sigh of relief when I heard the thud of him landing out there, and then the scramble as he ran away.

Qīwù stared at me, mouth agape. I reached out with a tendril of power and closed it for her. István was giving me the strangest look.

"Is there something I'm missing?" I asked.

He looked at me and then back out the window. "What was that young man here for, in the first place?"

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Viktor, who was over in the corner amusing himself by trying to trap Steeve in his big hands, burst out laughing.

As it turned out, he had been there to invite me down to some form of event. Celistar had appeared a few minutes after I'd, *ahem*, 'thrown out' our unwelcome visitor, looking a little exasperated.

"Somehow, they know your faction is here. I'm not sure what method they used to determine this, but they've invited you to the spar," The Moon Fairy had her fingers on her brow. "This is exactly what I didn't want."

Now, of course, she didn't elaborate on why that was something she didn't want, and I didn't ask in turn. She'd been doing that a fair bit lately. It didn't seem to me like she wanted to hide something from me so much as she was worried about messing something up by not obscuring certain facts.

I felt as though I could probably figure out how to just directly pull them from her, as she was dependent on me, but doing so was such a gross violation of the trust we'd built that I'd never even considered doing so.

Our whole group was assembled out front, awaiting me to lead it. I still hated the whole charade of me as the leader and its trappings, but at least I was used to it now, which helped a bit. Viktor, for his part, would revel in my obvious discomfort every now and then and didn't seem the least bothered by not being the boss. István gave me tons of useful hints. The man had shown he knew so much about the how these interactions were supposed to work over the past few weeks it made me question if Viktor had done anything to run the Artifact retrieval business at all.

I mean, the big man had definitely done paperwork, but he always looked like a caricature doing so. His huge shoulders and frame towering over the small desk giving the impression to an observer that he was trying to intimidate the papers into submission, rather than compose them.

Moving at a sedate pace, as was expected for someone of my station, I joined the group and we proceeded through the inner streets of the Circle, many of which I'd already been down. Qīwù was most helpful here, walking just barely behind me and moving in such a way that I could read her intent, looking like I was leading the group while in all reality not having a damn clue where we were going.

Successful organizations truly are groups of competent people lead by some some idiot who just made a good first impression with a lot of confidence, I thought in a self-depreciating manner.

I consoled myself with the realization that at least we were better off with me than Sect Master Péng Fēng.

We descended to a large, open-air auditorium with a raised center circle of stone. It was quite clear this was some sort of sparring arena, and many small scars marred the surface.

Celistar had told us to behave as the guests we were supposed to be on the surface, and not as a wayward sect that the Circle had taken in. Even if that was closer to the reality.

So we filed in to a special place in the stands reserved for such things, and waited patiently and quietly as the attendees from the Stormwing Circle settled in afterwards, filling up a good potion of the rest of the space. Celistar arrived with them, but joined me at the front of the stands. We both had our respective factions behind us. Hers, with their cloudy, light grey outfits, the leaders adorned with vivid, bright trim, reminiscent of lightning; and ours, an Azure blue, with Viktor and István and I in a lighter, more subtle mode, with mine the lightest of all. I was told it was an expensive fabric because it was difficult to get the dye correct for such a strong color in such a delicate saturation.

Not that I would ask for such a thing. I'd rather they just throw whatever colors they had spare at us rather than using something costly. It was crazy comfy, though.

I heard the Iron Veil Order before I saw them, just as we had before. From closer, the metallic noise of their ornamentation sounded closer to the clashing of weapons from the 'sword dances' we'd witnessed recently than to any sounds of marching I was familiar with.

They came in a similar order to that which we'd seen them in at the gate - the procession being much smaller this time. At the rear was a much smaller contingent of the people I'd previously decided were servants. They were clearly held 'beneath' the rest of the contingent, they were still well-kept. Their clothing, while plain, was perfectly clean.

Their Nebula, however, was not. What little was there was disturbed, almost turbulent, and seemed to refuse to flow around them. I wasn't sure what to make about this and was in the middle of leaning over to ask István about it when I saw that the procession had stopped in front of us.

"Greetings, oh Ancient One of the Stormwing Circle. We have heard news of your return. While it was not our intent to interrupt your catching up, we wish to sharpen the cultivation of our collective disciples against the grindstone of a friendly spar.

I could feel that Celistar was put off by the man who was speaking, but without her original power, she had her hands tied in several ways, metaphorically speaking. "It is only right that we not raise our next generation in a greenhouse, but make them strong in the winds of the wider world," she said, her words of wisdom coming across much more naturally than I felt they did when I borrowed her knowledge to say the same.

He bowed deeply at this, "Thank you for your wisdom." I expected him to turn back to the stage, or to lead his contingent to their seats, but instead he turned slightly to address me.

"I am honored to make your acquaintance, Venerable of the Azure Sky." He said, bowing to me.

That bastard! I heard Celistar roar in my mind.

Uh oh.

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