Jin'en hauled the man surnamed Zhou up from the foot of the wall and pushed him back into the chair.
"Who's the buyer?"
"I really don't know their name." Zhou's voice trembled a little, but his speech remained fairly steady, as though he were rapidly calculating how to get himself out of this. "It passed through two intermediaries. My contact only gave me a code name: Prism."
"Prism?"
"I don't know what kind of organization they are, either. I just know they pay well and specifically buy coordinates for spatial ability users. They approached Daffodil before, but that fell through, so they turned around and asked about Poinsettia."
Jin'en stared at him.
Uncomfortable under his stare, Zhou added, "They offered too much money. I'm just a businessman. Whoever pays the most, I-"
"Who in the Bridge District hasn't heard of Red Letter?" Jin'en cut him off. "And you dared take this job."
Zhou shut his mouth.
Jin'en picked up the kraft paper envelope from the table and opened it. Inside were a stack of photographs and several sheets of paper.
The photographs showed Porsette in profile on the seaside promenade at Unheard-of Bay, taken from far away, as though with a telephoto lens from a rooftop opposite.
The papers contained handwritten observation logs recording when she appeared, her movements, and a note reading "suspected teleportation ability."
Jin'en turned to the last page. A line on it read: Double the price once teleportation range is confirmed.
He slipped the photographs and papers back into the envelope, folded it, and tucked it inside his trench coat.
"How do Prism's people contact you?"
"They don't contact me." Zhou swallowed. "Once I find something, I leave the information in a locker on the second floor of the Bridge District Library. Third row, fourth from the left. They collect it themselves."
"How often?"
"Once a week."
"When's the next time?"
"The day after tomorrow."
Jin'en withdrew his hand from the table and straightened.
Thinking he was leaving, Zhou's shoulders relaxed halfway.
But Jin'en didn't move. He looked down at him.
"If you run before then," Jin'en said evenly, "and I come to collect the information the day after tomorrow and don't find it, I'll come looking for you."
"I won't run."
"You can run if you like." Jin'en tilted his head.
"This isn't your only hideout in the Bridge District, anyway. There's the one behind the card room, the one at the entrance to Halfwidth Street, and that warehouse on the edge of New Hethereau District."
Zhou's expression changed.
Without looking at him again, Jin'en turned and went out through the sheet-metal door.
The passage was a little darker than before. The light tube at the alley entrance swayed in the wind.
As he walked out, he buttoned his trench coat and slipped his right hand back into his pocket.
After a dozen or so steps, he rounded the rear wall of the card room and paused.
There was a coordinate in his Spatial Perception, at the corner by the passage entrance. It wasn't moving, but its heartbeat was faster than an ordinary person's.
Jin'en turned sideways, leaned against the brick rear wall of the card room, and glanced toward the corner.
Porsette stood at the alley entrance.
She wasn't wearing her cloak. Her cream turtleneck sweater was exposed, her braid was neatly tied, and both hands were in her trouser pockets, the fingertips of her red fingerless gloves showing beside the seams.
She looked toward Jin'en, her gilded eyes brighter than usual in the dark alley.
"How did you get here?" Jin'en walked over.
"You drove away." Porsette's voice was level. "I told my sister I was going out for some air. She didn't stop me."
"You ran here on your own?"
"I took the bus." Porsette tilted her head. "I memorized the Bridge District bus stops yesterday."
Jin'en fell silent for a beat.
In less than a day, she had stored coordinates for even the bus route from the mansion to the Bridge District.
"What are you doing here?"
"Sister Broken Rainbow said you went out alone." Porsette took two steps forward to walk beside him, glancing into the depths of the passage. "She said you haven't seemed quite right lately and asked me to check on you."
"And you came just because she told you to?"
"I happened to want to go out." Porsette's voice grew a little quieter, as though she were simply telling the truth. "The mansion's too stifling."
Jin'en looked at her for two seconds and asked no more.
They walked out through the alley behind the card room. It was afternoon in the Bridge District, and there were few people in the alley. Several pieces of old clothing hung from the overhead wires, swaying in the wind.
"Did you find anything?" Porsette asked.
"Yes. Someone's collecting the information the day after tomorrow." Jin'en patted the envelope, indicating the inside of his trench coat. "It's going in a library locker. I'll go take a look then."
"What about today?"
"We're going back."
Porsette didn't reply. They reached the parked car, and Jin'en opened his door while Porsette got in from the other side. As she fastened her seat belt, she glanced at Jin'en, hesitating to speak.
"Say it." Jin'en started the car.
"When you were questioning that man, I listened at the alley entrance for a while." Porsette's voice was different from usual, stripped of its soft, sweet shell and more direct. "He said Prism approached Sister Daffodil before. They only turned to me after she refused."
"Yes."
"That means Prism has been watching from outside Red Letter for a long time." Porsette tightened her seat belt. "Does Mother know?"
Jin'en turned onto the main road.
"I'm not sure."
Porsette was quiet for several seconds. After the car passed two intersections, she spoke again.
"That new ability of yours, the rod. Have you told my sister?"
"Which sister?"
"Sister Daffodil." Porsette turned to look at him. "That black rod you used in the single-story house in the Bridge District yesterday. She saw it."
Jin'en didn't reply.
Daffodil had seen it, but she hadn't said or asked anything. That was more troublesome than if she had.
"You don't want her to know?" Porsette asked.
"What could she do even if she knew?"
"She could help you check it." Porsette's voice was very soft, but every word landed firmly. "It took you ten years of practice to get your spatial ability under control. That dark-attribute rod has only just appeared. What if something happens while you're fumbling around practicing on your own?"
Jin'en turned to glance at her.
Porsette didn't look away. In the afternoon light, her gilded eyes were pale, like two worn copper coins.
"When did you start minding my business?" Jin'en asked.
"When you took me to Unheard-of Bay." Porsette's tone was as level as if she were reciting coordinates. "You said it yourself. It doesn't matter if you miss a step. What matters is knowing how to patch it."
Jin'en turned onto the gravel road halfway up the mountain.
"We'll talk when we get back."
Outside the mansion's back door, Broken Rainbow waited for them, leaning against the side corridor wall.
Her bare feet rested on the stone ground. She had changed into clean cargo pants, and her untied white hair fell over her shoulders. When she saw Jin'en's car stop, she tilted her head, her lips curling up, though the light in her green eyes was quieter than usual.
"You're back," she said, drawing the words out less than usual.
Porsette got out of the passenger seat, glanced at Broken Rainbow, then at Jin'en, and tactfully took a step toward the hidden door in the side corridor. "I'll head back first."
Broken Rainbow didn't stop her.
Jin'en locked the car and headed toward the hidden door. As he passed Broken Rainbow, she fell into step beside him.
"Little Red Riding Hood followed you?" she asked.
"Yes."
"She took the bus." Broken Rainbow's fingers gripped the braided cord in her pocket, her voice airy. "You didn't tell her to go."
"She came on her own."
"I know." Broken Rainbow glanced sideways at him, the light shifting in her green eyes. "I told her to go."
Jin'en stopped.
Broken Rainbow stopped too, tilting her face up to look at him.
Afternoon light streamed through the window at the end of the corridor and fell across her face. Her pointed canine teeth didn't show.
"She needs to practice teleportation coordinates," Broken Rainbow said.
"You can't go out to handle things alone every time and leave her in the mansion. She needs to get used to following you, to opening portals in different locations. Otherwise, when something really happens to you next time, she won't even know where to teleport."
Jin'en looked at her without speaking.
Broken Rainbow unwound the braided cord from her fingers and wrapped it back around her wrist. The white cotton cord left a faint mark on the back of her hand.
"You took her to Unheard-of Bay yesterday, and today she followed you to the Bridge District. She memorized the route and stored the coordinates. She can get there herself when you're not around." Broken Rainbow tilted her head. "Next time, she'll be able to teleport straight to your side. If something happens to you, at least she can open a door for you to escape."
Jin'en walked a few steps deeper into the side corridor.
"You didn't send her just to practice coordinates."
Broken Rainbow followed, her steps light, her bare feet almost soundless on the wooden floor.
"She needs to learn by watching how you do things," Broken Rainbow said. "Mother teaches her rules. My sister teaches her how to wrap things up. But when you act, you don't rely on rules or wrapping things up. You rely on your own instincts. She has nowhere to learn that. She can only follow you and watch."
They reached the door to Jin'en's room. Jin'en pushed it open, and Broken Rainbow followed him inside, sitting straight down on the edge of the bed and unwinding the braided cord from her wrist to wind it between her fingers.
"What did you find today?" she asked.
Jin'en pulled the envelope from inside his trench coat, opened it, and spread its contents across the bed. Broken Rainbow lowered her head to look at the photographs and observation logs. Her green eyes scanned them, and her fingers stopped at the words "double the price" on the last page.
"Prism." She repeated the name evenly.
"You've heard of them."
"No." Broken Rainbow set the paper back on the bed and shifted toward the headboard, leaning against the wall. "But if they could watch my sister that long without being discovered and figure out Little Red Riding Hood's routine, they're no ordinary small organization."
"I'll go to the library the day after tomorrow and see who collects it."
Broken Rainbow tilted her head at him.
"Take Little Red Riding Hood with you," she said.
"Why?"
"Let her see how you stake a place out." Broken Rainbow wound the braided cord back around her wrist, rose from the bed, and walked up to him. "You weren't this attentive when you taught my sister, but you were quite attentive when teaching her stance training. Prism is watching her. She needs to learn how to watch them back."
Jin'en looked down at her.
Broken Rainbow's green eyes were very dark in the warm light, with something very quiet in them. Her lips curved up, but only slightly, and her pointed canines didn't show.
"One more thing," she said.
"What?"
"That black rod of yours." Broken Rainbow tilted her head, and a lock of white hair slipped off her shoulder. "It's fine if you don't tell Mother. But you have to let my sister and me know."
Jin'en leaned against the low table, folding his arms across his chest.
"How do you know?"
"Porsette told me," Broken Rainbow said without a hint of apology. "She said that when you used the rod in the Bridge District the day before yesterday, its tip was black, not silver. You sparred with my sister in that single-story house in the Bridge District and absorbed the spiritual power from her blade. I know all about it."
"You certainly get your news quickly."
"I have good eyes." Broken Rainbow took two steps toward the door, then turned her head back. "That dark attribute of yours isn't like my illusions, and it isn't like my sister's blade, either. It absorbs things. If you don't train it properly, it might even absorb you."
Jin'en didn't reply.
Broken Rainbow looked at him for two seconds, said nothing more, and pushed the door open to leave. The sound of her bare feet on the corridor's wooden floor receded, disappearing as she turned into the side corridor.
Jin'en sat down beside the bed, packed the envelope again, and placed it on the bedside table.
The silver markings on his right wrist were quiet.
But he could feel that the other power was still there beneath them.
Heavy and steady, like a stone pressing into his palm.
He turned his right hand over and looked at it. His palm was clean, with nothing there.
That night, Jin'en didn't sleep.
He waited until the mansion's wall lamps switched to dim light, then went out through the hidden door in the side corridor and circled around to the gravel road on the rear mountain.
He chose a spot sheltered from the wind, stood behind a large rock, and raised his right hand, palm upward.
Dark flowing light seeped out of the lines of his palm, gathering into the shape of a rod beneath the moonlight.
The black rod was clearer than it had been in the Bridge District during the day. He could make out the fine, dense patterns along its shaft, like cracks in tree bark. A very thin film of dark light covered the tip, neither hot nor cold to the touch.
Jin'en gripped the handle and touched it against the trunk of a short tree beside him.
The instant the tip touched the bark, a thumb-sized bump swelled on the trunk, then collapsed, crumbling into gray-white powder. The powder fell onto the grass and scattered with a gust of wind.
Jin'en drew the rod back and looked at that section of trunk.
The spot he had touched had sunk inward about an inch, its edges charred black, just like the wall he had tested in the single-story house that day.
Devouring.
It absorbed whatever it touched.
He withdrew the black rod. The dark flowing light shrank back into his palm, while the silver markings on his right wrist remained quietly in place, without lighting up.
Jin'en stood behind the rock for a while, looking at his right hand.
Two powers, one light and one dark, coexisted in the same arm. The light attribute tore through space; the dark attribute devoured matter.
"I can train it," he said quietly.