Chapter 17- A Child Carrying Gold In The Market

There are few joys more pure than that of a child opening boxes. That balance of mystery and enticement- it’s a present, it’s going to be something good, but what is it? What could it be? Then they open the box and WOW! Look at this! Amazing! Next box please!

Tian and Hong had an entire caravan’s worth of boxes to get through, plus all the rings Tian collected from the heretics.

“Which do you want to open first?” Tian asked.

“You looted it. You pick.” Hong shrugged. There was a tightness in the corners of her eyes. Tian thought she might be hurting worse than she let on.

“Painkiller? I have some… well, it’s medicine for other things but if I mix some of them together they might do something?” Tian offered.

“You are bad at selling things.”

“Selling?”

“Never mind. What are you opening?”

“Um. The wagons had chests, but they also had some hidden compartments. The chests should be pretty fast to get through, I’d guess? Also there were lots of rolls of soft cloth.”

“I know you know what silk is.” Hong gave him a look. He looked right back.

“I do know what silk is. Which is why I didn’t say ‘There were lots of rolls of silk.’”

Hong wiggled her hand, then nodded. “Fair enough.”

Tian pulled out his string of looted storage rings, which caused Hong to start sputtering. “What the hell is that?”

“This is a storage ring. You can put stuff in it. You have one. Go on, try it. Imagine you are reaching-” Hong threw a clump of sand at him. “I really don’t understand what you don’t understand.”

“Why do you have a string of storage rings?”

“Because they are worth almost nothing when I turn them in for merits, and being able to carry more stuff is more good.”

“But they aren’t bound to you. Anyone can steal them.” Hong shook her head firmly.

“They can if they kill me. At which point they can get the ring that was bound to me too.” Tian shrugged.

“You know there are pickpocket arts too, right? Or just ordinary pickpocketing?” Hong upped her look game again. Tian was flustered. He didn’t have any room to escalate on the look front.

“What’s pickpocketing?”

“Stealing things from on a person’s body without them noticing? Literally picking things out of their pockets or from inside their robes.”

Tian’s eyes went wide. “Demonic art!”

Hong laughed. “There is a reason everyone just carries one or two storage rings.”

“I’ve wondered about them for a while, actually.” Tian frowned. “How do they work? Where do they come from? Do we make them in the sect?”

“I… huh. I don’t know.” Hong cocked her head to the side. “They are pretty common, but some are way better than others. I thought it might be the Divine Shapers Sect, but I really don’t know. They’re like cobblestones. They come from somewhere, but who cares where when they are so common?”

Tian stared at Hong. Unbeknownst to him, he had reached new heights of giving someone a look. “The magic rings that can hold a wagonload of goods inside of them and stay magically attached to a person even if their body is mostly dissolved so long as they are alive, just turn up.”

Hong rolled her eyes and looked away. “Obviously they come from somewhere. They aren’t free. But they can’t be that important if a lay brother can collect entire strings of them just by wandering around.”

Yeah. Why would anyone question that? That seems completely normal and not worth noticing at all. Said the ghost in the magic ring. Who is very proud of his good grandson, who has been doing awesome all day. I’ll help you sort through the loot and find the really good stuff, you just have fun opening boxes.

Sounded like good advice to Tian. He started dumping boxes out on the sand. “Let’s split the boxes. They probably have salt in them, but we should check anyway.”

“Why salt?”

“Black Iron Gorge makes salt. These guys were heading out of the desert.” Tian shrugged.

“Not the only thing they make.” Hong cracked open a box and pulled out a rather exquisite glass. “Do you know how much these are worth?”

“I don’t even know what that is! I can see your hand through it! What even is that? Can you cultivate with it?” Tian was riveted. The glass seemed to subtly distort Hong’s hand, like it was under water. She laughed happily.

“It’s a drinking cup made out of glass. Don’t ask me how they are made, I don’t know, but apparently it’s something mortals can craft. They cost an absolute fortune in Mountain Gate City, and they are even more expensive in the rest of the Broad Sky Kingdom. I haven’t seen them before either, but my mom told me about them. Apparently, we used to own a set.”

She smiled regretfully, then thoughtfully. She poked around in the box some more. “There are at least twenty cups in here. I wonder if I can buy them from the sect for cheap?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Just take ‘em.” Tian shrugged. “Say it’s coming out of your share of the rewards. Write it down so the math works.”

Hong seemed torn, then smiled again. Tian thought this smile was a bit odd looking. “Why is it that the feral kid is strict about dividing the loot, but the disciplinary squad member wants to skim?”

“Because it’s not my loot,” Tian thought his voice was calm, but Hong whipped around to look at him. “This belongs to the dead brothers and sisters. We will make sure their wills are honored and they get every spirit crystal they are owed.”

Hong looked suddenly ashamed. “Sorry, Brother Tian.”