Xu Qing looked at the young man for a moment, then gave a curt nod.6

The previous night, he and the Captain had rebuffed the young Holytide’s pleadings. For a time. In the end, they agreed to his proposal. The plan was to slip through the swordsage dragnet by hiding in the Holytide caravan.0

Xu Qing didn’t ask whether or not the caravan would actually end up in the duchy of Heaven Zenith.0

Their hiding spot in the caravan was on the surface of one of the fourleggers. It was a clever technique that masked auras; clearly the Holytides were skilled in such concealment arts.2

“Your humble servant is here to handle all your needs. Now that we’ve successfully slipped past the swordsages, the rest of the journey should be much less eventful. In a month, we’ll reach Holytide territory.”0

With that, the young Holytide took out two lotus leaves from his bag of holding, which he respectfully lifted over his head.0

“Your humble servant has only seen members of the supervisory species twice before. In both cases it was from a distance. My father has told me a lot about your customs and way of life, but truth be told I’m mostly ignorant. That said, I’ve heard you enjoy moonlight-touched dew harvested just before the break of dawn. So I sent a few of my people out to collect...5