The ship settled onto the main docking platform as the formation arrays releasing pressure.

The Sky Cutter’s landing formation clicked into place with a low hum, and the gangplank extended toward the docking platform.

Damon was the first one down.

The mountain air hit him immediately, cold and clean after the warmth of Solaris City, carrying the faint smell of pine and spiritual energy from the sect’s formation arrays embedded in the stone below his feet.

Sect Leader Hector was already waiting at the platform’s edge.

He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his sect leader robes moving in the mountain wind.

His expression carrying that particular calm that powerful men wore when they had been patient for a long time and were now simply waiting for the last few seconds to pass.

His eyes moved past Damon immediately and found Mei as she stepped off the gangplank.

"Lady Mei, the pill, please" he said.

Mei reached into her storage ring without breaking stride and produced a small jade box.

She held it out as she passed him, and Hector took it with both hands, which was the most reverence Damon had seen the man show toward any object.

Sect Leader Hector opened the lid, confirmed the contents, and closed it again.

Then he turned to Damon.

"Good work, this is for you." he said, and held the box out.

Damon took it.

The jade was cool against his palm, and through it he could feel the faint warmth of the pill inside, a concentrated pulse of earth-grade spiritual energy pressing against the container like it wanted out.

"Thank you," Damon said.

He meant it.

The pill was worth more than most cultivators would see in a decade, and Sect Leader Hector had handed it over without hesitation.

"I intend to enter closed-door training," Damon added. "Before the tournament."

Hector studied him for a moment.

"How long?"

"As long as it takes."

The sect leader’s expression didn’t shift, but something in his eyes moved, and then he nodded once.

"Ask Elder Selene where the cultivation caves are," he said.

"She knows the ones suited for your level. She’ll direct you to the right one."

"Understood."

Hector looked at him for one more second, like he was measuring something he hadn’t finished measuring yet, and then he turned and stepped off the platform’s edge.

He rose, his robes spreading as his spiritual energy carried him upward in a straight, unhurried line toward the peak of his mountain residence, growing smaller against the grey sky until he disappeared into the clouds.

The platform went quiet.

Mei watched the space where Hector had been, then glanced at Damon with a smile that carried no particular meaning except that she found something privately amusing.

"I’ll be in my residence," she said.

"Do try to rest before you destroy yourself in a cave somewhere."

She turned and walked toward the core disciple court’s upper path, her qipao moving with her, her long purple hair catching the wind.

Lumina, still in her Lark disguise, gave a short nod toward Damon.

"I’ll report back to the sect leader," she said, her voice even, her eyes not quite meeting his.

Then she followed the upper path in the opposite direction from Mei, and within a minute the docking platform held only Damon, Ariel, Mio, Mia, and Neko.

Neko was already in cat form on Mia’s shoulder, her tail curled around Mia’s neck like a scarf.

****

The walk to Selene’s mansion took fifteen minutes along the mountain path that wound through the core disciple court.

The stone steps were dusted with frost near the top, the way they always were when Selene had been training.

Damon pushed the front door open.

The entrance hall was dim, the walls catching the grey afternoon light and scattering it in pale blue patterns across the floor.

He had taken exactly three steps inside when Selene appeared.

She came from the corridor to the left, moving fast, her platinum hair loose around her shoulders instead of pinned back the way she kept it during training.

Her black robes were slightly rumpled at the collar, like she had been sitting in one position for a long time and had only just stood up.

She crossed the entrance hall without slowing down and wrapped both arms around Damon’s chest.

"I missed you," she said into his shoulder.

Her voice was quiet.

Damon’s arms came up around her back without thinking about it.

Behind him, he heard Mio make a sound.

A very small sound, the kind a person made when they were processing something unexpected and trying not to show it.

Mia said nothing, but he could feel the weight of her stare on the back of his head.

Ariel, standing to his right, simply smiled.

It was a calm, knowing smile, the kind that came from having information that other people didn’t.

Selene pulled back after a moment and looked at him. Her frosty eyes moved over his face with an attention she didn’t bother hiding anymore.

"You’re not hurt," she said.

"I’m not hurt."

She held his gaze for another second, then gave a short nod, like she was filing that information away somewhere important.

Damon looked at her, at the loose hair and the rumpled collar and the eyes that had lost their dead-sea quality and now held something warmer underneath the frost, and made a decision.

He bent slightly, got one arm behind her knees, and lifted her.

Selene made a sharp sound.

"What are you—"

"You said you missed me," Damon said, already walking toward her room.

Her face went through several expressions in rapid succession.

Shock, then blush, then something she clearly tried to suppress and failed.

"Put me down," she said, but her arms had already settled around his neck.

"Later," he told her.

Behind them, Ariel was already following, her blue eyes bright.

Mio and Mia exchanged one look.

Then they followed too.

Neko jumped from Mia’s shoulder, landed in cat form, and padded after them with her tail raised.

Then a fun orgy happen that day until the sun raised again the next day.