The Heavens Shall Fall

The following morning, Siu returned to the Nine Hanging Bells, but this time, only with Arya. After breakfast, Marly decided to go back to sleep, not wanting to go into the crowd, and found a sleeping spot in the Red Leaf, staying with Quillian and Seloryn. As for the latter, she was there to look up information about the other places, and the best place for that was indeed Quillian's shop, not the library.

“How much money did Seloryn give us?” Arya asked nonchalantly as they walked, making Siu raise an eyebrow.

“None, we are not here to buy anything, and you already had breakfast. We are here for information, that is all.”

"Master..." Arya clicked her tongue, looking up at him with slanted eyes, “They should start paying you as the owner of the Wardens. Isn't this how it should be? Tsk-tsk!”

"Let's not exploit our friends, okay?" He answered with a shrug, patting her head as the Nine Hanging Bells came into view. After climbing the great stairway, both of them stopped near the entrance, scanning the packed hall before them.

“Where do we go?” Arya asked, and even Siu wasn't entirely sure where to look.

“I was hoping you knew.”

“Eeeeh?!" She yelped, not catching his teasing voice, "Why would I know?!”

“You found the empty lot. Any new feelings about it?”

"No..." She muttered, lowering her head.

"Come on, let's look at the counters," he chuckled, leading her on. "One of the counters has to have a sign about buying or selling."

Disappearing into the crowded space, they began checking the signs above each of them until they noticed a particular counter displaying a symbol of two crossed keys beneath the outline of a small house.

"That should be it," Siu whispered as he approached it, and the old woman behind the desk looked up, hearing him place his hands on the wooden table.

“Rental renewals are handled at the third counter to your left.” She said with a sigh, "Lease termination is also the third one. This is for Property Management, for owners of land, not renters."

“Then I think this is the one I want to be at.”

"Really?" The woman asked, raising a brow, "A disciple with enough capital to buy land? Where are the rest of your organization? Every member's signature will be needed for a collective purchase."

“For now, I'm here to inquire before making the decision." Siu said diplomatically, "We found an empty parcel with a sign saying inquiries should be made here, as there was no price listed.”

“That is handled by the property records." The woman said quickly, "I only deal with finalizing deals. Go to the second level and find the eastern ring. Follow the bronze staircase until you see the emblem of a tortoise carrying a house on its back; that's where you want to be.”

Clearly, she had said what she had to say, as the servant had already lowered her eyes to her papers, returning to whatever she was doing before. Still, Siu thanked her and pulled Arya away before they would start frustrating her. Finding the bronze staircase was easy, and as I climbed it, looking down from above at the first floor, the main hall looked even larger. It took them another ten minutes to find the mentioned wing and then the carving they were looking for. After knocking and waiting a little, Siu pushed the door open, and there was a corridor beyond it. Stepping in, he saw maps covering the walls as he continued walking, and all of them were dated. Checking, some clearly went back centuries, yet none of them looked weathered at all.

In the end, they walked into a spacious room, where a thin man in blue-gray robes sat behind a circular table on a rolling chair, moving from one side of the desk to the other while reading from a transparent slate in his hands. His hair had already been graying at the temples, but otherwise he looked young enough that Siu could not tell whether he was thirty or eighty.

"Hm?" He suddenly looked up, noticing someone had entered his room. “Lost?”

“I'm here to inquire about a plot inside the sect.”

“Oh. I see, I see. Do you have a registered number?”

“I don’t know,” Siu muttered, blinking his eyes.

“Hm... Road name?”

“I... don’t know.”

“Haaah..." The man shrugged, asking with a dejected voice, "Then... Who is the owner?”

“I..." Siu stopped, feeling his face going red, "I don’t know.”

The man stared at him now, looking flabbergasted, thinking Siu was playing a prank on him, or that he was just too afraid to admit he was lost. That was when Arya leaned onto the desk and began speaking.

“It has a stream, a weird tree, completely flat and empty. It's up on the mountain, so it's a good walk from here.”

"Well, that at least is helpful," The man looked at her, rubbing his chin, “But many properties have streams, I need a bit more.”

“There is a bridge.” Arya continued.

“Many have bridges, too. How many does this one have?”

“One, and it's old.”

“That does not improve the search.” He muttered, squinting, thinking hard, watching as Arya’s ears flattened, as she had no more idea what to say.

"Ah..." Siu flinched, remembering he had brought Seloryn's map, and reached into his robes, placing it before the man. “We found it here.”

"Oh, you should have started with this!" The man took the map with a long sigh and began looking it over, then quickly pressed it against a built-in desk formation as a much larger map appeared in the air above them, showing the same portion of the inner territory in much greater detail, including roads and access points none of them even saw or noticed. “That cannot be right.”

"Huh?" Arya tilted her head, confused. “We said it was empty, and it is right, because we were there!”

“I mean the record.” The man muttered, still watching the map as he adjusted the formation, and the map shifted through several versions. More and more, newer buildings vanished, then they saw how old roads changed direction, some of the nearby terraces expanded and contracted, changing shape, yet the plot remained empty in every version.

“What are you doing?” Siu asked curiously.

“Checking historical overlays.” He answered quickly, "Currently, we are three hundred years back from today.”

"Whoa!" Arya exclaimed as the changes became even more noticeable.

“Five hundred.” The man said, and more and more changes were noticeable... but the plot remained empty. “Seven hundred.” Then, finally, a small marking appeared beside the land. It wasn't a building yet, but it was clearly a seal. "Hm..." The administrator leaned closer, “Interesting...”

"Expensive?" Arya rose onto her toes, her tail wagging. “Price?”

“No, it isn't the price.” The administrator muttered as he enlarged the old seal, "Transfer inquiry suspended. Huh..." Tapping away, the man tried opening the connected record, but nothing happened. "Double interesting... Let's see..." He tried again, but the desk's formation gave a soft, unhappy-sounding chime. “That file has been moved.”

“Where?” Siu asked, now also curious about what Arya had actually found.

“If I knew, I would not have said it had been moved.” He shrugged, leaning back, "This plot is pretty old and has been empty for a very long time. Which is rare... Wait here!” He said, standing up, clearly excited, as he hurried away, disappearing through a narrow door behind the counter.

The moment they were left alone, Arya immediately leaned over the desk and tried to touch the floating map, but Siu caught her wrist.

“Don’t... Last thing we need is to get into trouble!”

“I was only looking...” She pouted.

“Look with your eyes and not with your fingers.”

Several minutes passed as they stood there, but after half an hour, the administrator returned with a second man who looked closer to Quillian's age. Entering the room, he carried three tablets under one arm, while the younger administrator automatically lowered his voice when speaking to him.

“Here, Senior Halen, this is the parcel I was mentioning.”

"Senior." Siu cupped his hands as they drew near, and the old man did not look at Siu first; he only waved a hand, his eyes locked onto the image. Soon, he was summoning different tablets, going through each of them, building a neat little tower on the desk, before finally exclaiming. “There!”

The younger administrator leaned closer at once, and from where he stood, Siu could not read the text, but he didn't need to, as the old man looked up at him.

“The property belongs to High Elder Orzimar, who is, or was in his case, responsible for the sect's internal formations.”

“Is that... good?” Arya asked.

“No,” the younger administrator answered her.

"Why?" Siu also asked, looking at the record. “Is High Elder Orzimar... No longer alive?”

"..." At that, both administrators looked at him, and Siu raised his hands automatically.

“It has been over seven hundred years.” He muttered, almost looking away, making them answer simultaneously.

“Second Circle cultivators live long lives."

“I know." He added at once, "But more time means more chances to face danger, that was why I asked.”

"Well..." The older one fell silent for a moment, then continued reading after a quick cough, “The Elder himself remains active, I mean, there are no death records I can find, so he is still with us. If he had perished, this land would have been returned to the sect for distribution. But, for now, it is still under his name, and I can see no inheritance being set up, and also, no surrender of ownership.”

“So he still owns it,” Siu said, trying to make sense of it. "But there was a sign asking us to ask for... him? Do I get this right?"

"..." They exchanged glances, and when speaking, their voices weren't so sure anymore as they answered, “Yes."

"Well," The old man added, "The plot had been placed under an open inquiry, and that was never actually closed, only suspended automatically after being inactive for so long. I can see that several requests were submitted during the first century of it being put up, but there were no recorded replies to any of them. Interest declined after, and... well, in the past 700 years, there were none submitted.”

"Huh..." Arya frowned. “Everyone gave up?”

“People generally stop asking questions when nobody answers them, not to mention for hundreds of years.” The younger servant answered with a smile.

“So it may still be for sale,” Siu muttered, rubbing his chin. “Can I submit an inquiry?”

"Um," The younger administrator hesitated as the two began exchanging some silent words with their eyes, “You can. But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you”

“How long does an inquiry normally take?”

“For ordinary property?" The older one answered, "Three to ten days. If you really want to do this, you will need to identify yourself, your association, the intended use, and whether you are requesting a sale, lease, or simple audience regarding the property. Best to list every detail you can think of.”

“Ask to buy it,” Arya insisted through the bond. “It will be ours then, and we can own it forever, never selling it.”

“With what money?”

“Master, trust me!”

In the end, Siu decided to do so, as it was Arya who found it anyway. So, when filling out the slip the two put before him, he indicated that he is interested in buying, not leasing, the property. When Siu handed the slip back, the administrator placed it against the old property seal, and for several seconds, nothing happened. Even the servants were feeling a bit nervous, but then the sigil blinked and vanished from view.

“How will we know if there is a response?” Arya asked, breaking the silence.

“Your sash will be notified.” The older one answered, "You'll know."

“And if there is no response?” She continued asking questions.

“Nothing will happen.” The younger one added with a smile. "Which will be the case, most likely. Anything else we can help you with?"

"Well, if we are already here," Siu shrugged, and then began pointing at all the other plots they visited, asking for information about them all.