Chapter 714: A Haul Worth Leaving With

Chapter 714: A Haul Worth Leaving With

Lu Pei ruined his first cut by trying to save the coating.

The paste stretched too thin across the underside. When he lifted the blue-white branch, a line of pale vapor escaped beneath his thumb.

He swore, set it down, and reached for the jar again.

"Better to lose a spoonful than the sample," the Vessian specialist told him.

"I know that now."

Leon watched the second attempt hold. The branch went into its wrapping without another leak, and Lu Pei finally allowed a carrier to take it from him.

Soon the collectors had settled into a rhythm. One exposed the seam, another treated the cut, and the carrier beside them opened a prepared case before the material came free. Nobody had to stand holding a volatile specimen while someone searched for a lid.

Vyra moved between the cases with the recorders. She had marked separate places for red, blue-white, violet, and unidentified material, with the foreign treatment supplies kept within reach of all four collectors.

Leon stayed where he could see the approaches.

The storm continued west. Its distant crackling carried over the field, occasionally loud enough to interrupt conversation. He checked the charged edge whenever it brightened, then returned his attention to the people moving among the beds.

No one approached the Palace boundary.

A pair of cultivators from the southern camps paused within sight of the broken bronze plates. After a brief conversation, they chose another route.

Ira noticed them leaving.

"They didn’t even ask," she said.

"Do you want them to?" Leon asked.

She leaned on her lance. "Depends what they’re asking."

He smiled and went to check the cases.

The gray-green material proved troublesome. It came away in heavy, irregular pieces, several with red growth trapped inside. Lu Pei could not identify it confidently, and the Vessian specialist knew only that some buyers valued it.

"We keep it separate," Leon said. "Bai Heng can decide what it is."

"Separate from the fire-bearing cuts too?" Lu Pei asked.

"Until we know whether they affect each other."

The collector wrapped two small comparison samples and marked where each had come from. Leon approved. A large pile without useful records would leave them repeating half the work later.

One carrier struggled to settle a filled case into its sling. Leon caught the far handle before it tipped and helped him lower it.

"Too heavy?"

"The shape’s awkward, Senior Brother." The man rubbed his shoulder. "I can manage the weight."

"Move some into the next case. You still have to carry it through the pass."

They repacked it together. By the time Leon let go, the sling sat evenly and the carrier could turn without striking the lid against his knee.

Across the line, Orrin’s people were taking the longer red seams. Their tools bit deeper than the Palace collectors’ smaller kit, but each cut required several people to lift it.

She caught Leon watching.

"More trouble to separate," she said. "Less exposed surface afterward."

"Better for a long journey?"

"Usually." Orrin checked her workers before looking back. "Your people learn quickly."

"They have a reason to."

"So do mine."

She nodded toward one of her younger collectors, who had begun wrapping a piece before the senior worker finished checking it. The older man tapped his wrist, and he stopped at once.

Leon left her to her section. Competence did not make the Vessian Company harmless, but he preferred a neighbor whose interests he could understand.

By late afternoon, fifteen matched cases stood ready for division. Smaller samples and the seized Ashvard stock had been packed separately, with the latter secured in the storage space available to the expedition.

Vyra and Orrin checked the new harvest together. They divided the cases by their recorded contents, settling the few differences with smaller wrapped cuts. The Vessian Company received three loads of comparable value. Twelve remained with the Palace party.

Leon lifted the lid of one containing violet growth and red fragments, each protected in its own compartment.

He already knew which samples he wanted for his allocation.

"Close it," Vyra said beside him. "You’ve looked three times."

"I was checking the seal."

"Then let it stay sealed."

He shut it, still smiling.

Lu Pei approached with the last sample jar held against his chest.

"Master Bai said I needed more field experience before he’d let me work on difficult materials alone," he said. "I think this counts."

"Show him what you brought back," Leon told him. "Then ask."

The young man looked toward the cases again. His excitement was easier to understand now that Leon had seen how carefully he handled them.

"What would you work on?" Leon asked.

Lu Pei seemed surprised by the question. "Materials that change during refining. Most of the ones I’m allowed to handle are predictable."

"And you’re tired of those?"

"A little." He glanced toward the old cuts, then admitted, "A great deal, actually. I know that sounds ungrateful."

"It sounds familiar."

Leon remembered looking at a circulation he had made work, then immediately wanting to know what else it could manage. There was always another adjustment, another possibility that refused to leave him alone.

"Keep good notes," he told Lu Pei. "You’ll have more to show him than a box of strange rocks."

The collector smiled and went to check his labels. Leon watched him tuck the last jar into its padded slot, then helped a carrier tighten the case around it. That sample had taken too much effort to lose on the way home.

Leaving was less pleasant.

Beyond their final cuts, an untouched violet seam ran beneath a shelf of red mineral. Leon could have broken the stone above it easily. Taking the growth out intact, treating it, and packing it would consume time they had already promised elsewhere.

He looked at it once more before turning away.

Still going to think about that on the walk back.

Orrin accompanied them to the edge of the workings.

"If you return, ask for Vessian," she said. "We may have moved with the storm, but the southern traders will probably know where."

Leon nodded. "If we need more of that paste, we’ll bring something worth trading."

"I’d prefer that to another demonstration."

Her gaze briefly touched the broken formation plates. He let the remark pass.

All eighteen left together before evening, following Wen Shu toward the surveyed pass. They covered the first stretch before resting, then resumed early the next morning. Familiar ground and the checked shortcut let the carriers keep a steadier pace than on the outward journey.

They reached the last working plaque marker while daylight still lay across the ridge.

Bai Heng answered on the second attempt.

"Senior Brother?"

"All eighteen accounted for," Leon said. "We’re coming in with material for you."

"Everyone here is well. Tian’s base too. What kind of material?"

"Several kinds. Some we can’t identify."

A pause followed.

"How far away are you?" Bai Heng asked.

Leon laughed. "We’re walking now."

The old man met them at the spring with clean trays already laid out. After checking the first wrapped sample, he scraped a trace of coating into a dish and examined the growth beneath it.

"Well," he said softly. "Someone knew how to bring this home."