We had left the man’s farm and were on our way up the peak of the mountain to the Jade Mountain Sect. Even for Betsy, it was slow going. She may be fast, but there wasn’t a very good trail for a wagon to go up this side of the mountain. We could have gone around, and looking back we probably should have, to where there was a better trail. The sect had manicured a road down the other side of the mountain since that’s where the capital of this province was. Apparently, they didn’t get enough traffic down to Toyo to justify the cost of such a thing down the other side.

  We had gotten to the mountain quickly, and when we decided to brute force our way up this side of the mountain, we didn’t think it was going to be this rough. Autumn was setting in, and it made for a beautiful journey up with the trees just changing colors. I looked over at Niku, who had fully taken apart one of the muskets now and was tinkering with the different parts of the weapon.

  While she worked and tinkered, she explained the different gods of the world. It seemed like here the gods were over the usual things gods would be over back home: war, farming, the sea, the winter, and whatever else. The big thing that was a little weird here but sort of explained the torii gate shrine looking thing I had seen in a couple of different spots. The gods here were also some sort of kami. So Kentaro may be the god of honor and combat; he was also a lightning kami.

  “Mortals believed in something so strongly, a kami appeared. They’re gods, yes, but they’re something much more than gods at the same time since they’re only here because the people of the world believed so strongly in it,” Niku explained to me as we rode up the mountain.

  “So someone believed in the wind so strongly a kami was formed?” I asked.

  Niku nodded. “Yes, and the wind carries the seed for grain. Without the wind, rain wouldn’t come. Thus, Minoru, the skeleton god, is the god of rice and grain and a wind kami. It’s said the wind flows through his bones and sounds like wind chimes.”

  I thought about it for a little while. “I don’t remember that, but I guess it wasn’t very windy when I met him at the Lying Lily. Speaking of it, I really hope we come upon it while we head north. It’ll be a good spot for you to sleep for the night, and they have good food. I met a dwarf!”

  She blinked at me. “How’s that possible? They live in the mountains to the north.”

  I shrugged, and she looked a little irritated and confused about it.

  “I also met an elf?” I said with a wide grin and tried to make her feel better. It didn’t work, of course, and she just got a little madder, I think. I decided to go back to the previous conversation, and we’d return to that one only if we really needed to. I really did hope we got to make it back to the Lily.

  “So, no one has reached the Heavenly tier of cultivation?” I looked over at Niku with a cocked brow. It seemed kind of hard to believe.

  “Nope, and even the wise men of the various sects can’t figure out why. They thought Zhao Tseng would be the first, and then Silas Zhao,” she explained absentmindedly.

  It took me a minute to realize what she said, but when I did, I looked over at her curiously. She didn’t notice my glance and just kept tinkering with the musket. “Um.”

  “Hm?” She looked up at me.

  “Why is the father’s last name first, and the son uses his first name first?”

  Niku put down the firing mechanism from the musket and stared at me with a furrowed brow. It took her a minute, and finally she shrugged. “I’m not sure. Something about how Zhao Tseng’s wife is from The Northern Reaches. The continent above the Empire. They have different traditions. I think? I’m not sure.”

  I let her get back to her tinkering, and I pulled out the map Nakayasu had gotten me when I first got here. I sprawled it open and over. The Sasuke Empire was in the middle of the map, which was to be expected. To the left was a bit of a continent I knew was called Illian, above that were some islands that kinda looked like the United Kingdom and some of the Northern European countries if they were flip-flopped around. Everyone here just called these islands the Western Kingdoms, and I got the feeling they were much more Western fantasy-centric compared to the Empire. Finally, I traced my finger to a bit of the continent that was north of the Empire.

  “What’s the Northern Reaches like?” I asked her, not looking up from the map.

  “Um, it’s cold up there. There used to be raiders that would come down and attack the Empire, but the Emperor has finally been able to stop most of that. They use very long boats and would come down and scavenge. They still do from time to time, but we have more of a navy now to stop them,” she explained.

  I sat there and looked out towards Betsy. So, they were Vikings in the cold, snowy north. Well, maybe they were Vikings. I’d have to figure out more about their runes and stuff, but it certainly sounded like that with the longboats. I looked back over at Niku, and she was slowly licking, yes that’s right, she was licking the detached and taken apart barrel of the musket. Blinking, I then looked back to Betsy to let her be. I wasn’t an alchemist; the hell did I know? Maybe licking new materials was something you should do here. She didn’t seem to notice but did spit a few times over her side of the wagon.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t imagine it tasted good,” I said with a smirk as I put my map away.

  “No, but I can now say it’s made of wrought iron. Surprised they didn’t use steel,” Niku responded absently.

  I grabbed the reins of the Betsy’s yoke and started to pay more attention to what she was doing. The ox was managing, but she wasn’t happy about it climbing up and maneuvering through the trees and up the rocky side. She already wasn’t happy having two of the guns on board, but she did seem to perk up a little once Niku disassembled the one.

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  ________Silas_______

  The night before, Silas slept in Elder Masaka’s office. It was uncomfortable, but Silas couldn’t sleep anyway. From everything he had gathered, he hadn’t been by the water for very long, but the man was restless. The sect fed him a simple meal of rice and protein with vegetables and mostly treated him like a leper. All of his feats and knowledge and power were left by the wayside in his current state.

  He supposed he understood. No one knew what was going on or if whatever was going on with Silas was dangerous to anyone else. Elder Masaka seemed hopeful, though. Apparently, it was a good sign that the crystal showed something, even though it exploded.

  The next morning, the healer came back in with fresh robes for Silas and told him he had spoken to the head of his Order in the Empire. The man said to go see him in the capital and maybe he’d be able to help. He didn’t promise anything, but maybe he’d be able to help. At this point, Silas would take whatever he could get. The elder notified him of this caravan that was heading north, and they would get Silas a seat on a wagon. He’d have to be a guard, but it was transportation north.

  Now, while the pair and the angry ox made their way up the mountainside, a cold, beautiful woman stood outside the gates beside a broken, bulky but short cultivator stood outside of the sect’s main gates waiting. Silas stood next to his old friend, wearing fresh sect robes of the deep green and black. He still wore his wife’s scarf he had taken from his home before he had hit the road, and he took a deep breath to breathe in his wife’s scent while Kio spoke to the caravan leader.

  “I’m sure they’ll be along,” Kio assured both Silas and the caravan leader.

  Silas didn’t seem to care one way or another. He didn’t exactly have any deadlines. As long as he got there and he was able to find something out, he would be alright. He just nodded and looked over at his oldest friend with a grin.

  There was a loud, dramatic clicking of the tongue, though. The caravan master wasn’t the most patient of men. He was even shorter than Silas, and portly was putting it mildly. He was a foreigner, somewhere from the west judging by his skin tone. Peter was pale-skinned with a tan of someone who had seen his fair share of sunlight. He wore light furs in the cool autumn weather and had brown hair that looked like someone had put a bowl on his head and cut around it. His green eyes looked over at Kio, and he clicked his tongue once more. “We don’t have long to wait. We’re going through the desolation, and I wanted to park for the night just before it. Get an early start tomorrow and try to get through it before the illusionists figure out we’re there.”

  “Peter, I’m sure Maikeru will be here soon. Besides, you’ll be fine passing through the desert. You’ll have Silas here, who is an accomplished cultivator, and Maikeru himself is rather powerful. Plus, there’s William going along. Besides, we’re paying you and him good money to take our goods. You wouldn’t want to lose that payment from the sect, would you?” Kio looked over at him.

  Her look said she was impassive, but from where Silas stood, he shivered a bit. He always wondered why she hadn’t become an ice cultivator instead. It’d fit the cold beauty she portrayed to people. Silas knew a different side of her, though. He knew the warm, friendly side many people didn’t get to see. She was his oldest friend, and they joined the sect on the same day. In fact, as Silas looked around, they had met in this very spot.

  Ah, so he is from somewhere in the west. Silas thought and was happy to have it confirmed with the man’s name. Though he grunted with the information that he was going to be expected to be a caravan guard. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to fight. Hell, just trying to stop someone from sensing his soul yesterday was enough to make him pass out.

  Silas had met William, and the man went to go nap in a wagon while they were waiting. He was an angry sort, this William character. Sloppier than what Silas thought cultivators should be, but Silas could feel the man’s power. He found out there was another person down in Toyo from William’s sect. The Iron Claw sect wondered why William was here.

  “Yes, your angry friend. He does seem rather good,” Peter nodded and walked away from the pair of cultivators to get his other guards in line and let everyone know that they were still waiting for a late party.

  “Kio, tell me. What did you find out down in the town?” He reached and grabbed her forearm and looked up at her with soft eyes.

  When she first turned her head towards him, she looked down to where he grabbed her and then into his face. Her gaze softened, and she gave her old friend a soft smile, breaking that icy visage. “Not much afraid, my old friend. The junior alchemist found what she believes is mana. Some new kind of mana, but I don’t know anything else. There is no one in that village, but we did find where you were and where you got up from down by the water.”

  Silas nodded. “A new kind of mana?”

  Kio shrugged as she looked at him. “Yes. It looks like the night sky, and this Maikeru guy, he says he knows the constellation these supposed stars make out in that night sky, but I don’t know. I’ve never seen such shapes in the night sky.”

  Silas cocked an eyebrow. “Where’s he from?”

  All Kio could do was shrug. “I don’t know. I think Hisai, the young elder from the Cove Garden Retreat, knows I think. He’s taken an interest in the wagon driver.”

  “Hisai Moronao?” Silas asked. He had heard of the man. He had heard terrible things of the man’s past, but apparently somehow is trying to make amends and seek a life of peace in the Retreat.

  “The very same. The man’s much different from what he used to be, you know? He walks a path of peace and ash now.”

  Silas grunted and nodded his head. “Well, when you burn down your village because you throw a fit.”

  Kio looked at him, and her eyes flashed dangerously. “Shh. The man is a friend, and the Retreat is an ally of the Jade Mountains.”

  Silas shrugged. “I hold no ill will towards the man. Hopefully, he can find whatever he’s looking for and the universe smiles upon his changes.”

  Kio nodded.

  Silas rocked back on his heels though and looked at his old friend. “Wait, a new kind of mana?”

  She looked back forward towards the convoy and just looked at him from the side of her eyes with a little smirk. “Just catching that? You must be injured. Yes. That’s what the alchemists are saying. I don’t know if I believe it. When I tried to sense it, to get a feel for it, it just felt like…”

  Silas stared at the woman when she trailed off. “Felt like what, Kio?”

  The icy water cultivator turned her head to look right at him. She stared right into his eyes. “Silas, it felt like nothing.”

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  ? My 100th Life Will Be My Last ?

  by Asher Teivel

  Clara Crowsong has already lived and died ninety-nine times. This life is her last.

  My 100th Life Will Be My Last is a slow-burn progression fantasy featuring regression, necromancy, dungeon-diving, Divine Aspects, and the mystery behind Clara’s curse.