Schedule Update
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The lecture lasted approximately an hour.
Lu Changcheng had not raised his voice once, which was somehow worse. He sat across from Ren on the couch in his robe, arms folded, and delivered a steady account of every decision Ren had made in the Azareth Empire that a reasonable person could have made differently. In chronological order. With supporting reasoning. He did not repeat himself. He did not pause for effect. He worked through it methodically, noting each point where the outcome could have gone another way.
Ren sat through all of it without interrupting.
When it was over, he said, "Sorry, Brother Lu. My bad."
Lu Changcheng looked at him for a long moment.
"Jeez," he said, and unfolded his arms.
They sat facing each other. Ren had found a cup of cold tea on the side table and was holding it without drinking it. Outside the window the capital was doing its early evening business, boulevard lights coming on, transit lines humming in the distance.
"So," Lu Changcheng said. "Why did you come back so early? Your training period is not finished."
"I came to explain what I'm about to do," Ren said.
"Before I do it."
"That is an improvement over your usual approach."
"I thought so."
Lu Changcheng looked at him steadily. "Then explain."
Ren set down the tea and recounted it from the beginning. Arriving in the Azareth Empire. The clinic. The patients who kept coming. The misunderstanding that grew from treating soldiers and civilians without documentation, because a healer operating at that level in a foreign country without authorization looked, from the outside, like something the empire needed to respond to. Malvick Siven's visit, which had started civil and ended badly. The escalation. Gregory Hood crossing the border on a personal arrangement with no paper trail, laying a causality declaration that named the outcome before it happened.
The chase. The wall. What had happened after.
Lu Changcheng did not interrupt. His expression shifted as the account progressed, steadily darker by the end. By the time Ren finished, the room had gone quiet.
"Let me make sure I have this correctly," Lu Changcheng said.
"You entered another country without documentation. You healed their soldiers and citizens, which led them to conclude you were a threat requiring elimination. Malvick Siven personally contacted Gregory Hood. They operated on neutral ground. And now you have no way of knowing whether they believe you are dead or not."
"That's about right," Ren said.
"Gregory Hood," Lu Changcheng said.
"Yes."
"The Divine Hierophant. Legendary rank."
"Yes."
"You survived a causality declaration from Gregory Hood."
"Barely."
Lu Changcheng rubbed his face with both hands. He stayed like that for a moment, breathing slowly.
"Ren," he said, from behind his hands.
"I know."
He lowered his hands. "I am actually quite angry about this. You understand that."
"I thought you might be."
"What they did was an illegal cross-border operation. Gregory Hood sat in front of a Fated Declaration on neutral ground targeting a civilian healer who had not raised a hand against either nation's military structure. That is not a grey area." His voice had not changed in volume but something underneath it had.
"They tried to kill my brother."
"They didn't succeed."
"That is not the point." Lu Changcheng stood, walked to the window, looked out at the capital for a moment.
"I cannot go into Azareth or Victoria and address this directly. That is a war. A real one, with standing armies and governments and consequences reaching people who had nothing to do with any of this. I cannot do that over one incident, no matter how unjustified."
"I know," Ren said. "I'm not asking you to."
"Then what are you asking for?"
"Nothing. I came to warn you."
Lu Changcheng looked at him. "Warn me."
"Things in Azareth and Victoria are going to get worse. What I'm planning will have impact. I don't know exactly how much yet, but the instability will be significant." Ren met his eyes steadily.
"You're my brother. I came to tell you before it happens so you can prepare, not after when you're reading about it in a bureau report."
The room was quiet for a moment.
"How long have you been planning this?" Lu Changcheng said.
"Since I woke up in a six-year-old's body in a border town with nothing left," Ren said. "Which gave me some time to think."
Lu Changcheng looked at him for a long moment. Something shifted in his expression, caught between amusement and something heavier, neither one winning.
"You came to warn me," he said. "And to stop me from interfering."
"I thought you might sense what I was doing and try to pull me back."
"And what made you think I would do that?"
Ren scratched the back of his head. "You seem upright. Generally. I assumed."
"Ren." Lu Changcheng leaned forward. "I need to tell you something and I need you to hear it properly."
Ren stopped scratching his head.
"I am a guild master," Lu Changcheng said.
"I am also, at this point, approximately half a politician, which means my hands are not clean and have not been for a long time. This guild was built on blood and sweat and sacrifice. Most of the blood was not mine, which is the part I carry with me." He paused.
"Every operation I approve, I know some of those hunters may not come back. I make that calculation every time. I feel it every time someone does not return."
"I know that," Ren said quietly.
"But I also know the difference between the hunters I send into danger and the hunters from other guilds, other countries, other interests. I value our people. I value Qintaran lives. That is where my line is." He looked directly at Ren.
"Beyond that line I have never been as righteous as people assume. If I were, I could not run this guild. I could not make the decisions that keep this country stable."
Ren said nothing.
"What you are doing in Azareth and Victoria," Lu Changcheng continued
"if it succeeds, weakens two countries that have been positioning against Qintara for the better part of a decade. Victoria's religious faction has been building influence in our eastern territories for years. Azareth's military has three gate corps sitting on the border that they have never explained to anyone's satisfaction." He folded his hands.
"If those two nations enter a period of internal instability, that is good for our country. For this guild. For every hunter family in Qintara who does not want their children conscripted into a conflict started by people in comfortable offices making decisions they will never personally pay for."
Ren was quiet for a moment.
"So you're not going to stop me," he said.
"I was never going to stop you. I considered it for approximately forty seconds and then I did the calculation." Lu Changcheng looked at him evenly.
"What I am going to do is offer you resources. Within a reasonable amount. Not guild members. I will not send our people into whatever you are building. But information, access, equipment, contacts in both countries. That I can provide."
"You don't have to do that."
"I know I don't have to. I am choosing to." A brief pause.
"There is a difference, Ren. I thought you of all people would understand that."
"So," he said. "The resources. Information, contacts, access. When do you want to start?"
Ren set the tea down. "I'm going to decline."
Lu Changcheng looked at him. "You came here to tell me not to interfere, and now you are also declining the help I offered voluntarily."
"Yes."
"Why."
Ren was quiet for a moment.
"Because if something goes wrong, I don't want any of it tracing back to you. I'm not doing that to you."
"I can manage Gregory Hood."
"I know you can. That's not the point." Ren looked at him.
"You just told me you value our people's lives. I'm not putting yours at risk over something I started."
Lu Changcheng studied him for a long moment.
"You are the most contradictory person I know," he said.
"You will walk into another country with no documentation, survive a Legendary hunter hunt, climb through a nineteenth-floor window, and refuse help from your own brother because you don't want him inconvenienced."
"I prefer the word cautious."
"I prefer the word stubborn." Lu Changcheng stood.
"The offer stays open. If you change your mind, you know where I am."
"I know where you are," Ren said. "Nineteenth floor. Apparently never wearing anything when I arrive."
"Get out of my house"