Chapter 25 25
Chapter 25 25
They left at dawn.
Nuwa packed a travel bag in ten minutes flat. Medical supplies first, then food, then one change of clothes. No hesitation, no second-guessing. She moved through the clinic like someone closing a chapter — checking each shelf, banking the brazier, pulling the curtain straight.
Mei watched from the doorway. "You've done this before."
"Twice." Nuwa tied the bag closed. "Once when a fever outbreak moved faster than I did. Once when a warlord decided my supply routes were his." She lifted the bag. "I don't like leaving. But I know how."
They moved out into the early market.
Cloudspire was waking up slowly, vendors peering from doorways, checking that whatever had happened in the north lane last night was actually finished. A few nodded at Nuwa as she passed. She nodded back, unhurried, like she was taking a morning walk.
At the north gate she stopped and looked back once.
Then she turned and kept moving.
Xian Rui fell into step between them. His ribs ached with every breath. His shoulder had been re-dressed twice in twelve hours. The system was flagging fatigue that his infinite stamina was pushing back against, the two things arguing quietly in the background of his awareness.
He ignored both of them.
"Where are we going?" Mei asked.
Good question. He'd been turning it over since the clinic. The sect wasn't random anymore. They had a file. They had coordination across multiple cities. Someone senior was running it — someone who knew about him, about the bonds, about the system's significance.
Find the head. Cut it.
"The sect has a base of operations," he said. "Central command, somewhere. They're coordinating attacks in Cloudspire, Fangling City, and your training ground simultaneously. That's not field work. That's directed from somewhere fixed."
"The Black Spine Mountains," Nuwa said.
Both of them looked at her.
"The physician who died," she said. "My teacher's student. Before he was attacked he sent a message. Said he'd treated a man who'd escaped from a Shadow Sect compound in the Black Spine range." She kept walking. "I didn't know what to do with it then."
"How far?" Mei asked.
"Six days north."
Six days. Xian Rui ran the numbers. The sect knew they were mobile now. They'd send more operatives ahead, try to intercept before six days were up.
"They'll move fast," he said.
"So will we," Mei said simply.
The path north left Cloudspire behind within the hour, climbing steadily through terraced farmland and then into open grassland that swept up toward a distant grey ridge. The morning was cold and clear, the sky pale, the kind of day that offered good visibility in every direction.
Which worked both ways.
\[System alert — two signatures behind. Following at distance. Tracking.\]
He kept his pace even. "We're being followed. Two. Staying back."
Mei didn't turn. "How far?"
"Three hundred metres. They're not closing."
"Reporting position," Nuwa said. "Calling ahead."
She was right. They weren't going to attack with three of them together in open ground. They were marking the route.
"We need to split them up," Mei said.
"Or go faster than they can report." He looked at the ridge ahead. "If we're through that pass before their message reaches anyone ahead of us we buy two days minimum."
"How far to the pass?"
"Half a day at pace."
Mei looked at Nuwa. A direct honest look. "Can you hold half a day at pace?"
Nuwa met her eyes. "I walked this range twice a year for four years restocking medicines." A pause. "Can you?"
Mei almost smiled. "Fair."
They pushed harder.
The grassland gave way to rocky path and the path climbed sharply toward the ridge. Xian Rui felt the pace in his ribs and said nothing about it. Behind them the two tracking signatures fell further back as the terrain tightened — they were staying on the easier low ground, maintaining visibility over speed.
That was the mistake.
The pass was narrow and steep and by the time they crested it the trackers were a kilometre behind and losing ground. He looked back once from the top.
Two dark figures on the grassland far below, standing still.
Too far to follow quickly. Too far to report anything useful about where the pass led.
He turned north.
"Two days," he said. "Before they reposition."
"Then we use them." Nuwa shifted her bag on her shoulder and started down the far side of the ridge without waiting.
He watched her go. Then looked at Mei beside him.
She was looking at the path ahead, the wind moving her hair, her hand resting easy on her sword hilt. She looked like what she was — someone completely at home in difficult terrain, heading toward a fight, unbothered by either.
"She's good," Mei said quietly. Not surprised. Just noting it.
"Yes."
"Both of you were at Cloudspire three days ago."
"Yes."
She was quiet for a moment. Not asking the question directly. Letting it sit.
"It's not what you think," he said.
"I don't think anything yet." She glanced at him sideways. "I'm observing." A pause. "She treated you well."
"She treats everyone well. It's who she is."
Mei looked at him for a moment longer. Something moved in her expression that she didn't comment on. Then she started down the far side of the ridge.
He followed.
The three of them moved north through the afternoon, the Black Spine Mountains growing from a grey smudge on the horizon into something with detail and height and the particular cold weight of real peaks.
Six days.
Somewhere inside that range a Shadow Sect compound sat at the centre of a web that stretched across cities and paths and lives and was going to keep reaching until someone walked into its middle and pulled it apart.
\[System note — combat probability high. Current party bonds: three. Combined strength rating: significant. The God of Depravity notes you've stopped treating this like a quest.\]
\[He considers that an improvement.\]
Xian Rui read the last line twice.
Then he tucked the system away and focused on the path and the mountains ahead and the two women moving beside him who had each paid a price they hadn't asked for and were still here anyway.
Six days.
He intended to make the sect regret every single one.