Joshi strode away from the party. It was still dark, but the first pale hints of grey were touching the eastern sky. He couldn't call this dawn, but he also couldn't stay at that party any longer. Hopefully Hiroko would forgive him for walking out without another word.

  His sect’s two losses in a row brought burning shame to his cheeks and ears. Worse, he had done absolutely nothing on either challenge. Chang-li had at least rescued them from humiliation by demonstrating that the sect wasn't completely worthless. He, on the other hand, had been standing there watching the whole time. Even Bodily Refinement cultivators had contributed to the sect, and he had not.

  He had to face it right here, right now. The only thing of value he was bringing to his sect was the woman he was about to marry. That hadn't always been true, and it wouldn't be true in the future, he told himself. He could get through this. It felt like being a former warrior who had lost both his legs, forced to watch others ride in his place. Shameful, humiliating. He needed to find some way of helping the sect, but it was hard to imagine what that would be.

  Joshi rode down the tram from the edge of the plateau with a group of other Morning Mist acolytes, who were looking glass-eyed and clinging to each other at support. They avoided him, clustering in the other half of the car and not making eye contact. That was fine. He was in no mood to interact with junior sect members. At the bottom he turned and found his own way through the city. Before he knew it, he was at the gates of Taishin City.

  The main gates were still closed for the night,, but the city guards opened a side door for him and let him pass out into the open lands beyond.

  Outside the city wall he turned away from the road toward the Morning Mist compound and walking without a destination through the suburbs that surrounded Taishin City. His feet led him led him to the still-dark River District. Barges were pulled up along wharves. Warehouses stood along the docks, dark and silent with tired but wary guards outside. Only a few dockhands stirred yawning, shrugging off sleep as they headed toward their morning labors.

  Up ahead, light and noise spilled out of one open warehouse door. He heard the tell-tale sound of fists on flesh and cheerful laughter. Boisterous sounds. Joshi allowed himself a smile. That sounded exactly like what he needed.

  Inside, barrels and crates had been shoved to the edges of the warehouse, leaving a wide open space in the middle. People sat crowded together on the crates, laughing and cheering.

  There was a woman near the door with a couple of barrels and some extremely questionable drinking horns. She glared at Joshi. "We're nearly finishing for the night," she said, "but the cover's still a one drink minimum."

  He flipped her a coin. The woman filled a horn with suspiciously yellow beer and handed it to him.

  Joshi worked his way through the crowd to the edge of the open space. A pair of men were pummeling each other. Torsos bare, their hair tied back, he saw, to his surprise, that the robes which hung from their waists were in cultivator colors. Not any sect he recognized, but the cut was distinctive.

  As they continued to punch and dance, he spotted their cautious use of lux to reinforce their bodies. These were both men at the Peak of Bodily Refinement.

  Joshi was intrigued. They were showing off for non-cultivators. He allowed himself a sip of the beer, and to his surprise, it was remarkably palatable.

  The men continued their fight before one suddenly infused his body with red lux and lunged forward. His enemy tried to block, but too slow. A one-two blow to his head, and he was out of the fight.

  The referee stood with the pair of fighters as, all around the warehouse, bets won and lost changed hands. Joshi's blood stirred in him. It had been too long since he'd seen a decent fight. In all likelihood, this group would break up at dawn. He might as well stay a little longer and enjoy himself. It would take his mind off his own troubles anyway.

  The referee dismissed the previous pair of fighters. A nondescript man pushed through the crowd to whisper in the referee’s ears. The news must have been good, because the referee's face split into a grin. He nodded. The other man retreated, and the referee strode forward.

  "Good people of Taishin City!" he called, which got a couple of cheers and a bit of scoffing laughter. "I have a treat for you, one I know you've all been hoping for. The Morning Star has joined us!"

  That got a huge wave of cheers. Joshi settled himself on a crate in a corner. The people around gave him a glance, then drew away. That was fine with him. He'd have an unobscured view of what was apparently a local champion.

  On the far side of the warehouse, the crowd fell back, leaving a passage for the newcomer. Joshi peered through the scrum, expecting to see a local strongman. Instead, to his shock, he saw a tall, wiry man wearing cultivator's robes, in the pattern of Climbing Vines.

  An instant later, he recognized the man as well, Young Master Jiang, the bright hope of Climbing Vines, who had performed in challenges against Morning Mist twice that evening.

  Joshi's mind was stirring. He was aware of Magen, perched over his shoulder, a gentle, comforting presence offering him any assistance he might need. He couldn't think what that was yet, but his interest was piqued.

  Jiang strolled to the center of the room. He looked around, an expression of extreme indifference on his face, then deliberately placed his hands on his hips.

  "Well," he called, "I don't have all night. I've already used up most of my lux on challenges against actual cultivators. You folk all have a real opportunity here. Once again, I repeat my offer: Anyone who is capable of beating me will receive a place in Climbing Vines's outer sect."

  Joshi took an instant dislike to the man's drawling, sneering voice. He also deduced several things. First, this was not Jiang's first time here at the warehouse. The referee had implied as much. Second, that whatever he was doing, it was without honor, beneath the dignity of a cultivator.

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  The people here, though, shouted excitedly. They jostled forward. The nondescript man was back, along with a woman a bit taller than he was. They held bags in their hands. Each of the people shuffling forward dropped a handful of coins into their outstretched bags.

  Now the scheme came clear. Jiang was offering these people a fantastic shot at a prize, a place in his own sect, if they could beat him. But it wasn't an opportunity that came free. He was charging them money for the privilege of standing up and losing to him.

  Because Joshi had no doubt that, even without much lux left in him, Jiang could easily beat all comers. He was a Lux Endowment cultivator, at least, which meant his will was strong. His Intent, probably half-formed or more. He would be able leave his opponents cowering in place while he casually beat them down.

  Joshi was growing angry. He had never approved of one-sided fights, the strong picking on the weak just because they could. Worse, this man and his partners were profiting from it.

  The hopeful combatants spread out all around the edges of the makeshift ring, men and women both. Some were in their teens, others looked to be well into middle age. There were at least two dozen of them. From the look of it, they would all attack Jiang at once. But numbers meant nothing when their opponent was a cultivator.

  Joshi stood up. The spectators near him drew back yet again, and their motion caught the attention of the referee, who pointed.

  "Come on up! Is there someone else? Fifty kwam for your entry if you have no cultivation. A hundred kwam if you've reached the Peak of Bodily Refinement."

  Fifty kwam was as much as a dockhand made in a month, if he understood the casual references Chang-li had made. Joshi's assessment of the situation changed rapidly. Not only was this Jiang fighting people incapable of properly countering him, he was taking them for quite a lot of money. Those two sacks contained a small fortune.

  Joshi strode forward. The money holders stood in his way, the woman holding out a hand. "You'll pay before you enter the ring,” she demanded.

  The man with her mouth dropped open as he looked Joshi over. "My dear, this is a cultivator."

  "Then it's a hundred kwam," she said. "Pay up."

  Joshi didn't have any coin on him. What he did have was a core full of lux and the need to take his feelings of uselessness out on the deserving.

  He pulled his sect ring from his finger, the one that Chang-Li had found in a satchel, which, now that he thought of it, might well have belonged to Noren himself. It came off his finger with only a hint of resistance.

  Meanwhile, Jiang's attention had been caught. He was looking straight at Joshi. "You're one of those upstarts from Morning Mist. The coward who didn’t even contribute tonight to the challenges."

  "I am Joshi of the Darwur and the Morning Mist," Joshi agreed. "I am no coward. At least I do not fight those who cannot oppose me on an even footing.”

  “These men and women aren't afraid to accept a challenge just because it's difficult," Jiang taunted. "But no matter. I'll deal with you as well, if you have the gold for it."

  Joshi held up his sect ring. "My sect will redeem this for the price you choose," he said. "It's yours if I lose. But if I beat you, then you return all of these people’s gold to them with apologies, and never set foot in this place again."

  There was an outcry from the assembled throng. Joshi turned to them. "You think this is how you earn a place in a sect?" he demanded. "Has anyone ever beaten Jiang here?"

  Silence greeted him.

  "It's easy for you to say," one young boy on the far side of the ring said at last. "You already have a sect. You don't know what it's like to be homeless and nothing."

  Joshi laughed. "I know what it is like to have nothing," he said. "And that is why I will not let this worm take from you the little you have."

  "Fine," Jiang snapped. There was a hint of hesitation in his eyes, as there should be. But he wouldn't be able to refuse a challenge like this.

  Joshi handed the ring to the woman with the money bag.

  "I will take that from you when I am done here," he told her. "I hold you and this man of yours responsible for it until then."

  She cringed out of his way, and Joshi stepped into the ring.

  More of the hopeful combatants were calling protests to him, but he ignored them. The referee had his own mouth agape, but he recovered, shouting: "Young Master Jiang has accepted all opponents! When the gong sounds, begin!"

  Joshi cycled Way of Boulders, frowning. He had expected them to make this a one-on-one fight. The untrained hopefuls would only get in the way. He tried not to let his annoyance show as he prepared himself for a fight. Jiang had used a good deal of blue lux earlier in the evening, along with strands of the other colors, but he might have access to a lux battery. Joshi couldn’t tell how much lux was in his core. He'd have to treat this fight seriously.

  The referee scurried from the ring, looking fearful. A moment later, a gong sounded.

  The hopeful combatants shouted defiance and began to rush toward Jiang. Joshi took a second to see what the young master would do.

  Jiang's will struck out like iron. It reverberated against Joshi. The command passed through all of them: "Hold."

  The fighters stopped dead in their tracks. Some of them had their hands raised in fists. Others were mid-stride. One woman had been in the middle of leaping toward Jiang. Gravity did not obey Jiang’s will and she dropped her to her face on the boards of the warehouse.

  Young Master Jiang snickered.

  Joshi flexed his own will and freed himself from the cultivator's intent. At the same time, he threw out Binding Chains. Jiang had barely an instant to react. He threw himself sideways, but Joshi's chains followed him, wrapping tightly around the man.

  Joshi yanked on the Binding Chains, drawing Jiang toward him. He summoned his gauntlet, prepared to land a Thousand Fists punch on Jiang, but Binding Chains exploded into puffs of lux, and Jiang was simply not there.

  Magen's warning sounded. Joshi rounded to find Jiang behind him with a dagger of orange lux, poised to stab.

  Two could play at that game.

  Joshi's green slippers took him across the room to the edge of the ring, beyond the ranks of the frozen-in-place combatants. He was expecting Jiang to follow immediately, but instead, the Climbing Vines cultivator had paused, crafting together a weave of lux. He hurled it at Joshi and disappeared.

  Joshi caught the weave with his gauntlets. It wrapped around his hands, dissolving his lux gauntlets and eating inward, piercing his lux channels. A burning sensation filled his arms as the foreign lux tried to invade.

  Joshi shouted in pain. He curled his hands into fists and took a thirty-foot step using his slippers to come in beside Jiang. He drove a punch straight into the man's solar plexus, knocking him back all the way across the ring.

  Jiang crashed into a pair of frozen hopeful combatants. The three bodies fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Joshi pushed his own will through his body, clumsily, burning away the traces of foreign lux, and prepared his own next move.

  He couldn't use Thousand Fists in such tight quarters without possibly harming the other combatants. Nor could he employ Meteor Punch. That left him with his fists, his wits, and his determination.

  Chang-li would have a pocket full of tricks, a satchel of scrolls and a contingency plan for every situation. That was his strength. Joshi’s was in punching enemies in the face. Until now, it had been enough, but the longer they stayed in Taishin City the more he saw the weakness of his approach. He needed something more. Not a change to his style of fighting, but a refinement, an edge, a way to stand toe-to-toe against any comer.

  He needed a new technique, and nothing was occurring to him just yet.