Chapter 128 – Quillian
Ruben did not give Siu a chance to ask more questions before he turned and began walking toward one of the counters. While he walked behind it, Siu looked over its top, seeing that some slips were neatly packed there and clearly marked as completed, while another batch was not only dusty but covered in spiderwebs for dramatic effect, or so Siu thought. Probably outers' requests that Ruben refused to hang up, and his own could have ended amongst them in the past.
“Don't forget my warnings, Mister Siu,” Ruben said, his tone pleasant enough to sound helpful and irritating enough to make Siu wonder if he was doing it intentionally. But it was a step up from being called Just Siu. “It would stain my reputation as a considerate senior if you later blame me for the deal you strike up under my signature.”
“So, if a contract goes askew, you can be held liable?” Siu asked.
“If the Elders find something wrong with the contract, yes.” Ruben smiled, looking at him. “I may get fined or, worse, punished in some other way.”
"He means, he will get his name tainted and lose the chance to ever become a core disciple." Joren snorted behind Siu, standing with his hands tucked into his sleeves. “Especially true for people on the Paragon list. Their title demands a kind of... decorum. Which, as you can see, Ruben here practices religiously.”
“I practice many things,” Ruben replied smoothly. “Politeness is merely the most visible aspect of mine.”
"Are you... friends or enemies?" Siu asked suddenly, blurting out the question that was swirling in Arya and Marly's minds.
"Worse." They answered in unison, "Half-brothers."
Siu looked between the two of them and decided not to get involved further, as family troubles like this were... not something he had any will to get involved in. Not to mention, they were nothing like the twins... More like polar opposites of the two. It was then that a girl came up to the counter, ignoring Siu and Joren altogether.
“Ruben,” she said, her face looking severe, crossing her arms bossily.
“Disciple Hara,” Ruben answered with a shallow bow. “How radiant you look this morning. Has the love of your life finally recognized your talent and chained you to his bed until now?”
“...” That immediately made the girl flinch, go stiff, her mouth opening and closing, her haughty expression crumbling at once.
"I guess not." Ruben shrugged, "Look, I will be with you in a moment, but as you can see, I have work to do." He waved a hand towards Siu and Joren.
"You have MY job to do, and you said it will be done TODAY." She said through clenched teeth, throwing two quick looks at her side.
“And I will," He nodded, "But the day only just started, and, mind you, I'm not in until," Ruben said without blinking an eye, glancing at the back of the hall, where a clock was ticking, hanging off a pillar, "Well, until an hour later. Be happy you even found me here! Anyway, this newly promoted junior is interested in the room above Master Quillian’s bookstore. Let me deal with that, then we can get to your heart's desire.”
“The bookshop room? Above Red Leaf?” she asked, snorting. “With two beasts? Fat chance he will take them.”
“Are you Master Quillian?” Siu said before she could continue, unable to hold himself back.
"Excuse me?" The girl blinked her dark eyes, turning fully towards Siu.
"I asked: Are you, Master Quillian?" He repeated, enunciating the last part, making the girl's head turn a bit redder than it should. Seeing he wasn't going to back down, the girl’s mouth twitched slightly, while Ruben’s brows rose in interest. On the other hand, Joren had turned away, laughing into his sleeve, masking it quickly as a cough.
“Well," Ruben smiled, breaking the silence, "He is not officially animal-friendly, but that's because most beasts are not in a mutual contract when it comes to the majority of disciples.”
“Yeah, and—” Hara continued, then stopped, squinting at Arya and Marly.
“Master Quillian will decide personally,” Ruben continued at once, ignoring Hara and now talking to Siu. “If he says no, the offer remains open. If he says yes, you pay the first month and deposit here, then sign the lease copy with his and my seal. Read all his clauses, and if you come to a verbal agreement or make modifications, put them in writing. You can ask him to draft it or just rely on me, as I will be here as a witness.”
"Will do." Siu nodded, also ignoring Hara by now.
"Let me warn you one last time," Ruben leaned against the counter, smiling. “Master Quillian is eccentric. Also, very fair. He is one of the few people in this valley who can remember where a scroll was shelved two hundred years ago and who borrowed it last, including what excuse they used when returning it late. So while living next to him, make sure to act as if every piece of written information was passed down from the Heavens, if you want to stay on his good side.”
"Wait..." Siu looked at him. “Two hundred years?”
“Roughly,” Ruben muttered, leaning back, rubbing his chin, thinking.
“He is not an Elder?”
“No,” Ruben said, just before Hara could finally interject instead of standing there like an invisible mannequin. For once, there was no teasing edge in his voice either. “He is a servant.”
That made Siu pause... A servant...? By now, he had already learned enough to understand what that meant, but hearing it attached to someone with two hundred years behind them felt strange. His Old Man was only a hundred when he asked him as a kid, and he already looked like, well, an old man. Shaking his head, he had to remind himself that a servant, here, was not the same as a mortal house servant, though. These were people who had once been disciples, but those who had never managed to cross into the Second Circle to become Elders.
“He failed to become an Elder?” Siu asked quietly, wanting to know more.
“Yes, but don't bring that up to his face,” Ruben replied, once again stopping Hara from speaking up. He had a knack for that, it seemed. “From what I know, he reached Elemental Awakening, the last hurdle, at the end of Flesh Morphing. It is the doorstep into the Second Circle. Disciples usually clear it within a year or die in their tribulation. Only a few survive a failure at that stage, but those who do... Well." He fell silent, looking very somber, "What I know is that he could not stabilize the transformation of his mortal vessel enough to continue. He survived, which is already better than most who fail at that point, but it is as good as being stuck at the Flesh Morphing stage forever. He was not crippled, but still.... crippled. If you know what I mean..." He sighed, with actual sympathy in his voice, "He has been working in the Hall of Thousand Echoes ever since and runs a bookstore on the side. I think he still hopes to find a way out of his situation, but we all know that is impossible. It has already been centuries, and he has stayed a mortal. I don't know how much time he has left, because he almost made it through, but...” He sighed again, shaking his head, refusing to finish.
The slip in Ruben's fingers just then gave off a soft chime, and a small formation lit across the counter, shaped like a square frame with a dot in the center. He pressed the housing slip into it, then flicked two fingers over its surface, and the dot split into four smaller lights, circled once, and then vanished.
“Summons sent,” Ruben said, smiling, “He pops up here once a week, checking on his offer, so you were lucky coming today.” Then he turned towards Hara, "Go, girl, I will call you when we are finished here."
Seeing that she won't get a chance to even interfere, she just scoffed and finally stormed away, intentionally bumping shoulders with Joren and Siu, walking through between them.
"No." Siu said out loud, holding Arya and Marly's tails, as both of them clawed after her, only swiping at nothing as she was already away, "Leave it. It's not worth the trouble."
"That bitch deserves to be trained and turned obedient!" Arya snarled, showing teeth, still growling towards the leaving figure of Hara.
"Language." Siu snorted, but Arya just harrumphed.
"She is female, I can call her that! I'm one too!"
Only smiling to himself, Siu simply waited, using the time to read the other slips that were posted nearby. Most were housing-related, but the more he looked, the more he realized how careful one had to be. A room that seemed cheap at first had an additional note requiring the tenant to help maintain three private gardens. Another offered a half-price residence, but only to disciples willing to test a newly repaired gathering formation. One courtyard advertised 'quiet and harmonious cohabitation,' which sounded good until Siu noticed the bottom line requiring all tenants to participate in weekly combat rotations against one another.
“Is everyone here trying to trick everyone else?” he muttered.
“No,” Ruben said with a chuckle. “They aren't trying to trick, as you can see, they add the important parts. The fact it's the smallest font... Well, don't be hasty, and read the fine print, hm? The competition is fierce, and sometimes, depending on one's own affinity, advancing needs a certain... panache. Those who lack it get trained the hard way.”
"A what?" Joren blurted out the same thing Siu wanted to ask.
“Cultureless...” Ruben rolled his eyes, "Can't believe how our mother managed to see anything in that stable boy to give birth to you."
"She had seen more in him than in your father... I am the evidence of that. You could be his spitting image, which is probably why she made me, to make her forget about you."
“Charming as always.” Ruben chortled, not even taking offense at it. "I will chalk it up to being a bastard."
Before Siu could defuse the situation, the formation on the counter chimed back, doing it for him. The lights appeared again as they gathered into a small vertical line, then unfolded into characters that Siu could not read properly from his angle.
“He is coming,” Ruben said at once.
It took only a minute before the crowd near the side hallway began parting as people moved aside, or risked getting hit with a walking stick if they stood in the approaching figure's path. Siu watched as the man who emerged from the crowd looked old. Even older than his own Old Man, who already had a long, white beard and thinning, white hair. As for Quillian, he was short and bent slightly at the back. What checked out was that he also had a white beard so long that it nearly reached his belt... Wait... no, it was TUCKED into his belt, so he wouldn't trip on it. His eyebrows were almost just as long, hanging over a pair of surprisingly bright, sharp green eyes, the only part of him that didn't look old. His faded white hair was tied messily on top of his head with what looked like a ribbon, only for Siu to realize it was actually a strip of old parchment covered in tiny writings.
Scanning his hunched body, his robes looked like the same-looking servants' robes he had seen before, but they had been patched so many times with different cloth that the original color mattered little. He looked the part of someone toiling away for centuries perfectly, even a dozen or so scroll tubes hung from his belt, while two brushes were tucked behind one ear. Was it comical? Yes and no. Mostly yes, thanks to the pair of reading lenses that sat on his forehead, while another pair was already hanging off his slightly large nose. Then, it was not so funny, as in one hand, he held a thick book open with his thumb still marking the page, using it as a club, pushing people out of his way, while in the other, he carried a cane made from polished dark wood, swinging it just the same, cracking ankles that lagged behind a step too late. Finally, reaching them, he stopped before the counter without greeting anyone, finished reading the line he had been on, gasping for air, then snapped the book shut.
“Who has beasts?” he asked suddenly, his voice raspy.
"Me," Siu cupped his hands, actually finding himself feeling that he was back before his Old Man once again. His tone was... so familiar, as if he suddenly arrived back home. “Disciple Siu greets Master Quillian.” He addressed him as Master without thinking.
"..." The old man’s eyes moved to him with a sudden flash, then to Arya, then to Marly, “Two beasts,” he muttered, sinking the book into his robes, making it disappear without any sign of it being there, and going to stroking his beard with his now free hand. “One fox, one squirrel... Hm. Mutual contracts?”
"Yes." Siu nodded at once.
“I can recognize it from the way their noses twitch and their eyes move,” Quillian said, as if explaining an unasked question. "Very good..." As he said that, Quillian stepped closer, leaning on his cane, inspecting Siu’s sash, his posture, his shoulders, his hands, then returned to Arya and Marly. “I see. New inner disciple... One beast on the cups of advancing, the other is still a step behind... I don't know... They are both female.”
“Master Quillian,” Ruben interjected, “this is the disciple interested in your room, and if you keep being picky, I have to return your slip for another week, asking you to pay the posting fees once again.”
“I heard!" He snapped at him, "I am old, not deaf or blind. I read your message, you cheeky little pompadour!”
“Of course. I would never imply otherwise.” Ruben said without flinching.
“You imply everything... Hmph!”
Siu suddenly liked the old man even more, watching as Quillian turned fully toward him again, his expression becoming more serious, though not unfriendly.
“You want the room above my shop... With those two in tow.”
“Yes,” Siu said. “For now, I need somewhere stable to stay while I learn the ways of the sect. And yes, I have two bonded beasts with me, and I was told your offer may allow them under certain conditions. I am willing to hear them, Master Quillian.”
"Stop calling me Master, it makes my back ache," He shrugged, "Senior Quillian will suffice."
"Yes, Senior."
"So," Quillian straightened, as much as his hunchback had let him, "They must not scratch, claw, bite, or rub to spread their mucus around, not against any of the furniture."
"Hmph," Arya’s ears twitched. “I have never clawed a thing in my life! Well... only things that tried to attack us.”
"I..." Marly tried, then added the truth hastily, "I will hold back!"
Of course, Siu translated honestly, and Quillan snorted.
“Better be!” He pointed at Marly. “No chewing parchment, book glue, leather binding, wax seals, ink cakes, dried flower bookmarks, or anything that smells like fruit but is not food. Do it, and I will turn you into a flask-warming glove!”
"I would break your hand if you try." Siu blurted out without being able to hold himself back.
"..." Quillian's eyes sharpened immediately, but then he grinned, showing a surprisingly white set of teeth. “Good answer, boy... we will get along just well.”
"If they cause trouble," Siu met his gaze without flinching, although his face had gone red a bit. “I take responsibility for them. If they break something, I pay for it or work it off, and if they become a problem, I will handle it before you have to.”
“Hm.” Quillan tapped his cane once against the floor. “As long as the damage is not big enough, I can accept those terms. But I require constant awareness!” Quillan leaned closer, and despite his small frame, there was suddenly something heavy in his gaze, pushing down on Siu, just like when the Elders were examining him, “A disciple who says, ‘My beasts would never,’ is an idiot. They are like kids who will cause trouble; it's what kids do. You did it, I did it, we all did it. Now, those who say ‘I will take responsibility if they do,’ are less of an idiot, but will only become not an idiot if they hold true to those words. We will see which one you are.”
"I understand, Senior," Siu said after a brief pause, nodding his head.
“The room is simple." He continued, "One bed, one desk, two shelves, one washing basin with a privacy screen, and one small formation plate for temperature control. I don't have a cultivation formation, and you are not permitted to install one. I will not have some young fool gathering too much essence above shelves of very old paper, ruining them! My home's essence regulation is set to perfection; disrupt it, and I will have your head! You don't have fire affinity perchance?”
“I don’t have fire affinity,” Siu said immediately, seeing Quillian exhale in relief.
"Good, gooooood..." He nodded rapidly, shaking off one of his glasses, catching it mid-air, slapping it back on his face faster than Siu could follow. “Now, the room is connected to a private hallway that has a separate stairway access from the alley, so you do not need to walk through the shop every time. From that hallway, a door leads to the common area. You can use it freely; it is set up as a reading room and lounge, and it is also where the shop's stairs lead to. The rest of the house will be off-limits, got it?"
"Got it." Siu nodded without question.
"As for the shop," He continued, "It closes at sundown unless I forget time, which happens often. If the door is open, you can use it; if it is locked, don't force it. Anyway, if you return late, you return quietly! If you bring guests, they remain your responsibility and must be brought through the alley, not my shop. After sundown, any shouting will not be tolerated! If your guests damage my books, I will charge you. If they damage rare books, I will curse your name in the library records so thoroughly that three generations of servants will dislike you, your sons, their sons, and even your mother!”
"Erm..." Siu blinked. “N-noted?”
"Note it down well!" Quillian repeated. “What do you think record keeping is for? Noting down important things. Hmph! Preserving grudges accurately is part of preserving knowledge.” He chortled, patting something inside his robe, "I have a Book of Grudges myself. Make sure that your name is not in it."
"Master," Arya made a thoughtful sound. “I think I like him. He smells funny but speaks funny, too.”
"I don't know, Big Sis..." Marly hesitated, "He scares me!"
"Oi..." Quillian turned his eyes toward them. “They are talking about me...”
“They like you,” Siu said in a hurry.
"Do they?" Quillian's eyes narrowed with interest. “We'll see.”
"So," Ruben slid the offer slip across the counter, deciding to step in just then, “Quillian, you have listed your offer at three Sun Crystal per month. Deposit of two Sun Crystals, with a minimum of one month being paid. I have also added everything that was said just now. Is this all, then?”
“Privacy,” Siu said after a moment, remembering one of his concerns. “I was told the room is above the shop, but how private is it? Who else has access?”
“Private enough, because beside me, nobody can go to the second floor." Quillian answered, "The floor has sound-dampening, and the walls have privacy seals. I do not listen to tenants and their talks. I do not report who visits unless sect law requires it, either, and I do not care who you sleep with, argue with, meditate with, or cry over, as long as you do not damage my property or do it at a level that beats the dampening. If I hear ANYTHING, it means you are being too loud.”
“I see,” Siu said, then, after thinking of Arya and Marly, added, “What counts as disturbing, besides noise? And chewing.”
“Hm," Quillian squinted at him, taking a deep breath and began ranting off a lot, "Excessive vibration, damp stuff left around, smoke, blood, oh, I hate blood. Also, uncontrolled essence discharge! Keep your practice to the arenas and your fluids in a sock!”
"..." Siu was trying not to twitch an eye, which was getting a bit hard, listening to Quillian.
“Who would train in their room?” Joren asked innocently, but Quillian struck his shin with his cane without looking. “Ah!” Joren hopped once, hissing loudly, “Damn it... What is it made of...?!”
“Within reason,” Quillan continued, looking back at Siu, “you will have your privacy, and I do not expect deadly silence from the living... But I expect respect." He said seriously, "My shop is not a tavern, not a beast pen, not a dueling hall, and not a place for disciples to show off how much essence they can leak from their holes. Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes, Senior Quillian,” Siu said, cupping his hand.
“Hm.” The old man studied him again. “You are taking this seriously. That's a surprise from a fresh one...”
“I need a place to live, and I'm not here to screw around. Also... Master Quillan,” Siu asked, spurred on with a sudden idea, knowing he would need a place to work at, “Ruben said you also work in the library.”
“I do,” Quillian said simply, waiting for him to continue.
"Is there an opening in there for someone new?"
"Khm!" Ruben cleared his throat, interrupting them, and Siu could tell that it was intentional. “Then, Master Quillan, are you accepting him as a tenant?”
"..." The old man did not answer immediately, taking in the trio once more, before finally nodding. “Accepted. One month to start! No long contract yet, but if he proves quiet and the beasts prove literate or at least not destructive after the first month, he can extend it indefinitely or until I break it off. If I raise the prices, he will get a month's notice in advance.”
It was fair, making Siu smile and nod, as both of them signed the copy of the contract Ruben had drafted, listing everything they had just discussed. As Siu read it through, it was impartial, fair, and clean; he couldn't find any loopholes, not for himself or Quillian either. Signing it, Siu paid at once, and even if he had prepared himself for it, handing over that much money at once still hurt. When everything was finalized, Siu felt his sash vibrate once, knowing the deal was official the moment Ruben stamped the contract and filed it away.
"Well then," Quillian spoke first, looking at Siu, "Will you come now, or should I expect you later?"
"Now is a good time." Siu said after looking at Joren and Ruben, "I need to learn where it is, after all."
"Well," Joren spoke up, reaching out a hand towards Siu, "I will say my goodbyes now, then. Still, do come around, eh?"
"Naturally." Siu smiled, nodding and shaking his hand. "I will."