Sobon felt ex-cep-tion-al-ly lucky that the auc-tion start-ed al-most im-me-di-ate-ly, be-fore Lai Shi Po had time to make any counter ar-gu-ment or find some-thing else to ar-gue about. In truth, Lai Shi Po was al-low-ing her-self to avoid think-ing about things, and would have been con-tent for a while longer--but there was no need.

  "Hon-ored cus-tomers!" The man who en-tered the stage was thin and an-gu-lar, ex-tra-or-di-nar-i-ly well dressed, and ex-ud-ed a sense of joy that was in-fec-tious. "We have a love-ly col-lec-tion of only the finest ar-ti-facts in store for you to-day, in-clud-ing a new col-lec-tion from our fa-vorite pa-tron, the Hon-ored Lai Shi Po, as well as a mys-te-ri-ous sub-mis-sion by a per-son she has per-son-al-ly vouched for. But our first items up for bid are per-haps the rarest raw materials we have seen--Star-beast Cores at the [Yel-low Flame] lev-el!"

  Even be-fore the item was re-vealed, as a sealed con-tain-er was be-ing brought onto stage, Sobon could feel the warp-ing of the aether, and she knew she was far from the only one who could. Be-fore Sobon could even think of ask-ing, the man on stage spoke again, his voice res-onat-ing with in-tent.

  "[Yel-low flame] is the low-est flame col-or with-in the [Im-mor-tal Flame] phase of qi, which is the sec-ond phase of [Flame Qi] af-ter [Mor-tal Flame], which it-self comes af-ter the [Tran-scen-dent Gem] phase, from which the Di-a-mond Lord him-self takes his name. This par-tic-u-lar core is known to res-onate with a con-cep-tu-al qi known as [Thrust Qi], a pow-er-ful form of move-ment qi ide-al for fast trav-el. The [Grand Saber Whale] which pos-sessed this core was known to have bro-ken through a forty li is-land with a sin-gle thrust of its [Im-pe-ri-ous Saber Tooth], which re-gret-tably is not for sale at this auc-tion. Thrust Qi con-cep-tu-al-izes mov-ing an en-tire body with-out ap-ply-ing strain to any part of it, and is an ex-cel-lent con-cep-tu-al qi for all move-ment tech-niques and ar-ti-facts. Bid-ding be-gins at 100 [Im-mor-tal Flame Coins]."

  In the mid-dle of the speech, the box was placed in the cen-ter of the stage, and then a frame-work of shields was erect-ed, the box open-ing on its own to re-veal a sligh-ly mis-shapen gold-en orb, which leaked flick-ers of yel-low qi-light like promi-nences from the sun. Sobon could ad-mit the item had high-er qi that she was nor-mal-ly com-fort-able wield-ing, es-pe-cial-ly with-out shield-ing--and it was only a ma-te-r-i-al. The idea of a per-son in-cor-po-rat-ing that into their body or an item they wield-ed seemed en-tire-ly fool-hardy.

  "Mag-nif-i-cent," breathed Lai Shi Po, and Sobon glanced over to see rap-tur-ous looks on the faces of the rest of the group. For Sobon, of course, the core was ob-vi-ous and straight-for-ward in its in-tent: a man-u-fac-tured core to re-place dam-aged star-ship thrusters. As-sum-ing the Coro-na was a light cruis-er, Sobon cal-cu-lat-ed off-hand, it might take dozens of such cores to get it back to sta-ble or-bit, if not hun-dreds. The Rapi-er would cer-tain-ly take at least fifty, as-sum-ing it didn't leave most of its mass be-hind to fo-cus on es-cape, and it was an es-cort frigate, not a cruis-er.

  Lai Shi Po didn't try to bid on the item, de-spite her rap-tur-ous at-ten-tion, and the core sold for for just shy of 200 Flame Coins. The seal-ing box snapped shut, still be-hind shields, and a cleans-ing ef-fect was trig-gered to re-move the stray en-er-gy be-fore the at-ten-dants came to re-trieve the box and haul it away. Even as they did, how-ev-er, an-oth-er item was be-ing brought from back-stage.

  "Our sec-ond Star-beast core, also at the [Yel-low Flame] lev-el, res-onates with a con-cep-tu-al men-tal abil-i-ty, whose spe-cif-ic na-ture has not been named. It seems to ac-cel-er-ate thought, and al-lows one to grasp much more com-pli-cat-ed con-cepts, and even per-ceive the world very dif-fer-ent-ly..."

  When the gem was re-vealed, Sobon nod-ded to her-self, rec-og-niz-ing that the auc-tion-eer would nev-er un-der-stand its orig-i-nal use. It was a spe-cif-ic com-put-er core ma-te-r-i-al, a prob-a-bilis-tic ma-trix, one used in a lot of cal-cu-la-tions. Which cal-cu-la-tions was usu-al-ly set when it was in-stalled; it could en-hance sen-sors, fab-ri-ca-tors, med-ical equip-ment, nav-i-ga-tion, or the main AI core, but in every case, its full pow-er could only be dis-played when built into a spe-cial-ized frame-work.

  Sobon glanced over at Lai Shi Po to see an in-tense look on the woman's face, and she re-al-ized that the woman was con-sid-er-ing bid-ding, even as oth-ers were al-ready do-ing the same.

  "It would be dif-fi-cult to make use of," Sobon said qui-et-ly, and Lai Shi Po's head snapped around, the look some-where be-tween ful-ly fo-cused and an-gry at hav-ing her thoughts in-ter-rupt-ed. "At least, prop-er use. And for this sort of ma-te-r-i-al, if you were go-ing to ex-per-i-ment, you would want a ma-te-r-i-al with low-er in-her-ent qi. Only some-one who al-ready knew how to use it could avoid wast-ing the ma-te-r-i-al."

  "All of that is true," Lai Shi Po said, turn-ing back to look at the glow-ing orb, sealed be-hind mul-ti-ple bar-ri-ers. "And yet, the abil-i-ty to en-hance my mind even more..."

  "You could not in-te-grate it," Sobon said, dis-mis-sive-ly. "Ma-te-r-i-al that pow-er-ful would be tox-ic."

  "I know that," she hissed back. "I've han-dled ma-te-ri-als in the Im-mor-tal Flame tier. I know I couldn't main-tain that with-in my body. But even to en-hance my mind for a few mo-ments at a time..."

  Sobon let her say what she was think-ing out loud, and watched as the act of speak-ing sur-faced more of the doubts in Lai Shi Po's mind. In the end, she didn't bid on it, and the ma-te-r-i-al sold for 121 Flame Coins. Al-though there was a long mo-ment in which she could have bid, and chose not to, Lai Shi Po still eyed the trea-sure with jeal-ousy un-til it was ful-ly sealed away.

  "Now, as is our cus-tom, I will be-gin the first of our sales of gen-uine Lai Shi Po [space rings]. For those who are not aware, Lai Shi Po space rings con-tain vast-ly more [pro-found fea-tures and abil-i-ty] than those of less-er ar-ti-sans, as less-er ar-ti-sans re-quire [per-fect-ly formed in-tent] from the own-er to op-er-ate. Lai Shi Po's pro-found space rings are be-yond the abil-i-ty of any oth-er ar-ti-san to repli-cate..."

  Al-though she was in-tent-ly lis-ten-ing, Sobon not-ed Lai Shi Po turn-ing to glare at her, and turned and gave the woman a smirk in re-turn. Still, Sobon could un-der-stand the ar-ro-gance and its place. She her-self would have been able to do every-thing she want-ed with a 'less-er' space ring, be-cause she could spec-i-fy in-cred-i-bly com-plex things with her in-tent, but for the av-er-age war-rior, es-pe-cial-ly of this world... they would need to learn a great deal to use such a ring when un-der any stress. But Sobon, hav-ing grown up in a world where they teach class-es on user in-ter-face de-sign... didn't need to cre-ate from whole cloth the con-cepts Lai Shi Po had ap-par-ent-ly made of her own ac-cord.

  "...[con-trol and in-sight] over the ring's con-tents and the [meth-ods of in-ser-tion, re-moval, and spec-i-fi-ca-tion of its con-tents]. We have to-day a prodi-gious har-vest of three space rings, of which this is only the first. The sec-ond will be in the mid-dle of the auc-tion, and the third at the end, so if this is what you are here for, you may wish to save your mon-ey un-til the end--if you can stand to!"

  Al-though the bid-ding for the ring start-ed at only fif-teen flame coins, it quick-ly bal-looned to near-ly eighty. Just be-fore the auc-tion could fin-ish, though, one of the pri-vate booths sud-den-ly boost-ed the to-tal by twen-ty flame coins, and no one dared chal-lenge it.

  "That booth is re-served for mem-bers of the Djang Im-pe-r-i-al Fam-i-ly," Lai Shi Po said. "If they had spo-ken ear-li-er, few would have chal-lenged them. They have nev-er been shy about wast-ing their mon-ey to dis-play their pow-er." She smirked. "And how could I dare ob-ject? They might have pres-sured oth-ers into si-lence even by meet-ing the min-i-mum bid, but in-stead they give me an ad-di-tion-al eighty sev-en flame coins."

  Sobon raised an eye-brow. "What ex-act-ly do you do with all of that mon-ey?"

  Lai Shi Po turned and gave Sobon an odd look, but be-fore she could speak, the auc-tion host stepped for-ward again, rais-ing his voice. "Next, we have a se-ries of [pro-duc-tion-fo-cused items], be-gin-ning with this piece, also by the in-com-pa-ra-ble Lai Shi Po. This six-piece set of items res-onates strong-ly with [Forg-ing Qi], and is de-signed to aid in the cre-ation of ar-ti-facts up the lev-el of [Black Flame Qi], the low-est qi lev-el in the [Mor-tal Flame] phase of qi."

  The items that were brought for-ward were odd, to Sobon's eye, al-though she fol-lowed the log-ic in all of them, as far as she could see it. There was a soft-en-ing foundary, for re-shap-ing items with-out nec-es-sar-i-ly us-ing heat, a pair of sealed tongs to ma-nip-u-late items safe-ly with-in the soft-en-ing field, a pair of thin gloves spe-cial-ly de-signed to re-sist the soft-en-ing-forg-ing qi once the item is re-moved from the field, so that the item can be shaped by hand, a cleans-ing foundary to re-move the soft-en-ing-forg-ing qi, a hard-en-ing fur-nace to se-lec-tive-ly ap-ply the right sort of qi to en-hance each ma-te-r-i-al in the item, and an en-grav-ing sty-lus, which from a dis-tance seemed much like the one Lai Shi Po was us-ing when Sobon first met her in her shop, end-ing with a point as thin as a hair but ex-treme-ly stiff.

  "Much ex-per-i-men-ta-tion is re-quired," Lai Shi Po said, as the items were be-ing dis-cussed, in very glow-ing terms. "Even when you know that a thing has been cre-at-ed by an-oth-er crafts-man, even if you are able to see the fi-nal re-sult, too of-ten the ex-act meth-ods of pro-duc-tion are en-tire-ly se-cret. How-ev-er you man-aged to de-duce the true in-tent of the ring that I gave you, no crafts-man I have ever met can so eas-i-ly per-ceive the means and tech-nique of oth-ers. This set," she ges-tured down at the auc-tion-eer, who seemed gen-uine-ly ex-cit-ed to be talk-ing about the six items, "is still ex-per-i-men-tal, and I have had to pay for a lot of re-sources, both to make and re-make items, and to buy raw ma-te-ri-als to test the set on every-thing I can ob-tain, es-pe-cial-ly Star-beast Core ma-te-ri-als."

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Sobon looked down, but only nod-ded. In her mind, she was cat-a-logu-ing things she would have done dif-fer-ent-ly--even set-ting aside that she would use mol-e-c-u-lar as-sem-bly pat-terns, the meth-ods to ap-ply and re-move qi seemed like-ly to leave a lot of residue, which would re-quire an-oth-er method to com-plete-ly re-move. The gloves were an ad-e-quate tool in the right hands, but the auc-tion-eer said noth-ing about con-form-ing per-fect-ly to the user's hands--per-haps be-cause they need-ed to avoid con-t-a-m-i-nat-ing the re-sults with more qi, but if the gloves had an in-ex-pert fit, it would make them dif-fi-cult to use. And the en-grav-ing sty-lus--again, in or-der to avoid con-t-a-m-i-na-tion, most like-ly--was re-ly-ing most-ly on its phys-i-cal sharp-ness to etch into ma-te-ri-als, which was not ide-al for all cir-cum-stances.

  In short, Sobon de-cid-ed, what was miss-ing in most of these was the abil-i-ty to prop-er-ty con-tain and ma-nip-u-late qi, which would like-ly be im-pos-si-ble with-out un-der-stand-ing aether and its many forms and flows. To-tal con-trol re-quired the cre-ator to be aware of what qi would do, and there-fore, un-der-stand not only the en-tire in-tent of the qi, but its nat-ur-al prop-er-ties. Even pu-ri-fied qi con-tained essence of space, time, and fate aethers, and im-pure qi was tan-gled to-geth-er with the nat-ur-al aethers of life.

  All of this was why Sobon was en-tire-ly con-tent to work with sim-pler, pu-ri-fied fla-vors of aether, in spite of the mas-sive abun-dance of qi through-out this world.

  "You do well enough," she fi-nal-ly said, af-ter watch-ing the auc-tion for the forg-ing equip-ment be-gin and near its end. The price was steep, and only a few spe-cif-ic groups were com-pet-ing for it, none in pri-vate booths--they were all in cheap-er, low-er booths, away from oth-ers but open to the air. Those few crafts-men com-pet-ing for the items were hurl-ing in-sults at one an-oth-er in be-tween their bids, all be-smirch-ing the oth-ers' abil-i-ty to pro-duce any-thing of val-ue, as the oth-ers looked on with some com-bi-na-tion of amuse-ment and an-noy-ance. "Even if you knew every-thing you need-ed to know, it would be dif-fi-cult to cre-ate a per-fect set of tools. And this world, like most oth-ers, was in-tend-ed to find the an-swers for them-selves, and not have them hand-ed over by some-one like me."

  Lai Shi Po huffed in ir-ri-ta-tion, but her snarl only last-ed a mo-ment. "You have al-ready giv-en me a great many hints, and I can see al-ready that I would do things much dif-fer-ent-ly. But I know from every-thing that you do that your meth-ods are tru-ly pro-found." She paused, then spoke, her words touched light-ly with in-tent, and sound-ing like a quo-ta-tion. "[Even hav-ing glimpsed the true heav-ens, I can-not be-gin to fath-om their depths.]"

  Sobon raised an eye-brow. "Who said that?"

  "The only one who has glimpsed the heav-ens. The Di-a-mond Lord."

  They were qui-et for a mo-ment, as the auc-tion con-clud-ed, net-ting Lai Shi Po more than an-oth-er hun-dred Flame coins, though it amount-ed to less than twice the start-ing price. There was a short pause as the ar-gu-ing among the crafters con-tin-ued, but then they were si-lenced, though Sobon didn't make any ef-fort to in-ves-ti-gate how. And then the au-cion mas-ter spoke up into the si-lence again.

  "Our next item is a [Grand-mas-ter Alche-my Fur-nace] by none oth-er than the ven-er-a-ble alche-my Grand-mas-ter Mu-jin Bing." Sobon no-ticed Fau Mide, who had been hang-ing back, im-me-di-ate-ly bounce to the rail-ing and lean out, ex-cit-ed-ly. Sobon looked down, see-ing a mas-sive stone and met-al pot be-ing brought for-wards, which shim-mered to Sobon's eyes with mul-ti-fac-eted, com-plex aethers. "This item is high-ly com-plex, and not to be used by those who are un-able to grasp [Spa-tial Qi]. It uses that Spa-tial Qi to [ex-pand and sep-a-rate its in-ter-nal vol-ume], al-low-ing [heat-ing, cool-ing, sep-a-ra-tion, dis-til-la-tion, pu-rifi-ca-tion, and re-fine-ment] process-es to act at once with-out any fear of mix-ing. Al-though care-ful con-trol is re-quired to use the item, it of-fers un-par-al-leled abil-i-ty to [per-ceive, con-trol, and reg-u-late] its in-ter-nal process-es. As an ex-am-ple, ven-er-a-ble Grand-mas-ter Mu-jin Bing has pro-vid-ed us these ten tinc-tures, which will be sold sep-a-rate-ly dur-ing this auc-tion, as items pro-duced by this Fur-nace. They have all been ap-praised as be-ing [suit-able qual-i-ty and pu-ri-ty] for [prac-ti-tion-ers in the Im-mor-tal Flame Phase of Qi]."

  The alche-my fur-nace, Sobon could eas-i-ly ad-mit, was not any-thing in her field of study, al-though she could un-der-stand its con-struc-tion even from a dis-tance. It used a vari-ant of pock-et di-men-sions that in-ter-locked through aper-a-tures, each pock-et hav-ing a con-trol-lable in-scrip-tion to pro-duce a va-ri-ety of ef-fects, and each aper-a-ture hav-ing mul-ti-ple con-trols. Sobon was too far to get into the de-tails, and she as-sumed that any-thing built by a grand-mas-ter of alche-my would in-clude a num-ber of sub-tle de-tails she couldn't be-gin to repli-cate, but at least the rough struc-ture of it was fa-mil-iar.

  In the end, the Im-pe-r-i-al Fam-i-ly si-lenced bid-ding on it be-fore it crossed 150 Flame Coins, ex-cept for a sin-gle bid of a sin-gle coin high-er--clear-ly a co-or-di-nat-ed ef-fort from the Fam-i-ly to en-sure that a spe-cif-ic crafts-man got their way.

  As the alche-my fur-nace was be-ing tak-en away, Sobon felt a fa-mil-iar qi shift, and straight-ened. "It's time."

  Not only Lai Shi Po, but every-one in the booth tensed with ex-cite-ment. And sur-pris-ing-ly, Sobon no-ticed a fa-mil-iar form come strid-ing out of the shad-ows be-low as the auc-tion man-ag-er spoke.

  "Next, we are very pleased to pre-sent to you to-day the work of an un-named mas-ter, rec-om-mend-ed to us by Lai Shi Po. As a demon-stra-tion of our faith in this mas-ter crafts-man, the Ap-prais-er him-self has cho-sen to speak for the items be-ing pre-sent-ed."

  "[Wel-come!]" The Ap-prais-er's voice rang out, his voice per-fect-ly mod-u-lat-ed with in-tent, every word crisp and clear. The ef-fort-less-ness of his abil-i-ty to in-fuse his words with in-tent and truth made the for-mer auc-tion man-ag-er seem al-most am-a-teur-ish in com-par-i-son. "[I had the lux-u-ry to-day to meet with a hid-den mas-ter, and was in-tro-duced to these two items, which will be put up for auc-tion sep-a-rate-ly. As a mat-ter of fact, the dis-cus-sion with that mas-ter was so pro-found that I was able, to-day, to com-plete-ly re-fine a new con-cept, one a great many of us had strug-gled with over time.]" The obese man prac-ti-cal-ly frol-icked on the stage, bound-ing around on his toes like a child fed too much sug-ar. "[That con-cept, so that you may all un-der-stand what fol-lows, I will call Pri-mor-dial Qi. It is qi that is not only pu-ri-fied, but true and pro-found, speak-ing to the ori-gin of qi it-self, so com-plete-ly un-spoiled that it re-quires care-ful pro-tec-tion to avoid con-t-a-m-i-na-tion. Pri-mor-dial Qi is a con-cept so pro-found, I was tempt-ed to cre-ate an In-tent Plate on the spot and put it up for auc-tion sep-a-rate-ly! But alas, if I did that, I could not use the con-cept to de-scribe these mas-ter-work items, and so as a pro-fes-sion-al, I put the needs of our dear cus-tomers above my own self-ish de-sires.]"

  Sobon felt a lit-tle em-bar-rassed, al-though she un-der-stood that every word the man said was cor-rect. And she knew, but forced her-self to ig-nore, the look that Lai Shi Po was giv-ing her, as every-one else had their eyes glued to the fat man in very ex-pen-sive clothes mak-ing a fool of him-self on the stage. It would be... cru-el, to say that she was es-sen-tial-ly fol-low-ing di-rec-tions from a tech-ni-cal doc-u-ment. She could say many things that would de-tract from the show go-ing on be-fore them, but none of it would change the very sim-ple fact that to all of these peo-ple, all of the dis-tinc-tions be-ing laid at her feet were true and hon-est.

  "[The two items which will be sold to-day are iden-ti-cal, and the name giv-en to them by this hid-den mas-ter was the (Crestan Crown). Be-fore it is re-vealed, I would be re-miss not to high-light the box-es, them-selves the work of this same mas-ter, or so I be-lieve. Al-though it looks to be forged of only steel and bronze--the two low-est met-als in the Com-mon Met-al Phase of Qi--it was de-lib-er-ate-ly de-signed to dis-guise the true wealth with-in. By se-cret and un-know-able means, it was de-signed and con-struct-ed in such a way that no hint of Forg-ing Qi re-mains, not even in the small-est de-tails, and every etch and edge is so smooth that it might have been pulled into cre-ation from its cre-ator's own imag-i-na-tion. The hinges and latch...]"

  Sobon sighed, al-though in-ward-ly, she was still pleased, and some-what ex-cit-ed to hear the ex-pla-na-tion. "In spite of his demon-stra-tion, I re-al-ly didn't think he was go-ing to talk about the box."

  But all the oth-ers were hang-ing on every word that came from the Ap-prais-er's mouth. "[...the small-est de-tail. But of course, the true trea-sure lies with-in!]" with a flour-ish, the first of the two box-es was opened with a wave of the man's hand, from where it stood on a pedestal in the mid-dle of the room. "[The Crestan Crown is a qi pu-rifi-ca-tion trea-sure, which con-tains a sin-gle mote of Pri-mori-dal Qi as a tem-plate against which the wear-er's qi is mea-sured. And then, care-ful-ly and in sev-er-al stages, the wear-er's qi is pu-ri-fied of stray in-tent, al-low-ing any-one at any lev-el of qi to ben-e-fit from its ef-fects. To be clear: it is in-tend-ed for use with un-na-tured qi, and even qi na-tures will be stripped from it dur-ing this process, pro-duc-ing qi one step clos-er to Pri-mor-dial Qi than that which was cir-cu-lat-ed through it. One is able to tell by which pu-rifi-ca-tion cir-cuit en-gages how pure the in-com-ing qi is. If one is able to feed the crown only the purest, high-est-qual-i-ty qi, one may even be able to re-fine their own Pri-mor-dial Qi!]"

  Lai Shi Po slammed her hands against the rail-ing, and shout-ed with a spe-cif-ic in-tent to by-pass the screen-ing wards. "[100 Im-mor-tal Flame Qi Coins!]"

  In spite of all the wards, Sobon felt like the eyes of the world fell on Lai Shi Po's bal-cony, and the Ap-prais-er turned and grinned up at her, of-fer-ing a bow. "[And the ven-er-a-ble Lai Shi Po her-self has de-cid-ed on an open-ing bid for the first of these two trea-sures, at 100 Im-mor-tal Flame Coins. Does any-one in this au-di-ence dare of-fend such a mas-ter by bid-ding against her?]"

  Across the way, Sobon sensed a rip-ple as an-oth-er hand was placed on a bal-cony, and a voice rang out. "[200 Im-mor-tal Flame Coins.]"

  Lai Shi Po im-me-di-ate-ly hissed, glar-ing over at the rail-ing where she had said her hus-band resided. "[300!]"

  Sud-den-ly, the Im-pe-r-i-al Fam-i-ly booth broke in. "[304 Im-mor-tal Flame Coins.]"

  Lai Shi Po breathed a sigh of re-lief. "[305.]" She glanced at Sobon. "It is an old arrange-ment. If they had fa-vored my hus-band, they would have bid 309."

  In-deed, there were no oth-er bids, and Sobon shook her head at the in-sane rate at which her for-tunes had risen. "That is... a lot of mon-ey."

  "It is the mak-ings of a less-er no-ble house," Lai Shi Po said, se-ri-ous-ly. "And in the hands of a non-Djang, at that. But with my pro-tec-tion, there is no rea-son to fear. At most..." She swal-lowed, and looked across the way, to where the Lai fam-i-ly leader stood, his sil-hou-ette clear at the bal-cony. "At most... you may be pushed into un-pleas-ant cir-cum-stances. But that mon-ey can-not be tak-en from you, and most like-ly, your next item will fetch a sim-i-lar price."

  Def-i-nite-ly high-er, Sobon judged, even as she no-ticed that Ki'el and Mian were speak-ing qui-et-ly, and Lui was ask-ing some-thing of Fau Mide, who just looked be-wil-dered. They wouldn't have stopped if they weren't in-ter-rupt-ed, and there is only one more.

  As the Ap-prais-er spoke in glow-ing terms about her-self, Lai Shi Po, and the Im-pe-r-i-al Fam-i-ly be-fore mov-ing on to re-it-er-ate what he'd said and bring for-ward the sec-ond crown, Sobon just tried to keep her breath-ing even, re-al-iz-ing just how much so-cial pow-er she could have wield-ed, if she were any-one else, in any oth-er cir-cum-stance. And she be-gan to think about what she would do, should do with the mon-ey that was com-ing in.

  And as best she could imag-ine, she only had one good op-tion, one that just might line up with the things she thought she'd glimpsed through the fu-ture of the Crowns.