Mok Fan surfaced in a further spray of water from the carp pond, his surprise mixed with growing anger. He was about to shout at me when he saw the amused looks on the faces of Mu Xuehua and Mu Fuxian, to the point they looked like they were about to laugh at him.

“What’s so funny?” he demanded, pointing at me. “She attacked me!” he accused me, and just watched both of them shake their head.

“Mok Fan was indeed a better person to test that defense than I. Although his hand is burned, it didn’t blow off, Lady Fae,” Fuxian noticed.

“His Demon Element means he’s considerably tougher physically than you are,” I replied, meeting Mok Fan’s angry but confused eyes with ease. “Master Mok, I have a set defense upon me that responds angrily to intrusion and contact with Dark Magic of all types, and that includes being physically grabbed by a Dark Mage. If you had been polite enough to offer a handshake, I could have politely refused so that something like this would not have happened.”

He stared at me, I stared back, and he finally growled, looking at his blackened hand as if it had betrayed him. The immense pain of the injury seemed to be something he was just tolerating as nothing unexpected.

I waved my fingers, sparking Typeless Mana, first restoring his attire in the chest-deep water, then Healing what were effectively topical Health injuries as he rose up out of the water with his own power, a puff of Fire drying him out instantly.

A lovely little child-like creature made completely of Fire popped out of nowhere and shook her little fist at me aggressively. She zipped up in front of me and began to berate me aggressively as she glared at me, her almost squeakish speech actually full of childish insults and tantrumic fury.

I lit up one eye with silvery Fire and let her see my own flames.

“Eep!” The little fire spirit zipped away and behind Mok Fan as he walked back up to the center, peeking out from behind his head at me warily.

It surprised all of them, actually. “Hey!” Mok Fan blurted out. “Aren’t you supposed to be a Typeless Mage?” he protested, startled at the power of my Flame, which had earned the instant respect of his Fire Spirit, noble Bloodline and everything.

“A Typeless Mage uses all types of Magic, Master Mok, not none of them,” I corrected him patiently. “At the heart of all Elements is magic itself, and it is that magic that we wield, not the products of it.”

“Oh.” He thought that over, and nodded after a moment. “Okay, that makes some sense. Hey!” His face lit up. “I never made it over to America to get that second round of Adept Spells! Is there any way I could buy them off you here?” he asked excitedly.

“If you will permit me to examine your Amulet, I will bend the rules, allow you to read the appropriate Adept spells of your Elements, and also give you a positive introduction to Fire Phoenix and Thunderbird Emperors, who might well gift to you the spells up to Archmage, and later Sage, for Fire, Chaos, Lightning, and Void Magic.”

His hand had closed defensively on the Pendant around his neck, staring at me with renewed suspicion. “You want to examine Little Snake?” he spluttered out. “No way!”

I simply inclined my head. “As you say,” I agreed without any force, letting his ire slide right past me.

I turned back to Xuehua, but Mok Fan blurted out tensely, “Why do you want to examine my Pendant?”

“Because it is a Sage-Class Pan-Element Mana Regeneration Item,” I replied patiently. “I can see it pulling in Mana across all your Elements and feeding them to you. I would like to know the methodology by which it does so, so that I might replicate it.” I waved it off. “But, it is no doubt a private Toy to you, and you don’t care about passing similar things on to your multiple children when they come.” Xuehua’s pale cheeks promptly blushed cherry at my words. “I have seen its effect, and will no doubt be able to research and duplicate it given enough time, and I am not in a hurry.”

But naturally enough, I wasn’t going to save him any time if he wasn’t going to save me any time.

“<Mok Fan! Do not endanger our new relationship!>” Mu Xuehua snapped at him firmly in their native Chinese. “<Lady Fae is giving us the chance to become one of the most powerful organizations in China!>”

“<As tools of more foreign colonials?>” he promptly sniffed back airily, tossing up his hands. “<Do you really think we’re going to get stronger if we need to knuckle under the hand of outsiders to do so? It’s not as bad as the Mu making us their slaves, but it’s still outsiders!>”

“<We can continue our conversation in Chinese if it makes you more comfortable to do so>,” I interjected before Mu Xuehua or Fuxian could respond, and the blood just drained from their faces as Mok Fan glanced at me in shock. “<Or, since your Champion is so opposed to getting rich in cooperation with others, perhaps we should just call all of this off, and add it to one more bad experience and a waste of time for Coralost when dealing with China.>” I arched an eyebrow at Xuehua, who looked very unhappy right now.

“Mok Fan, repeat after me,” Mu Fuxian said, leaning forward on the table. “I am an idiot who does not want myself or Cold Rice Mountain to be rich.”

“Uhhh...” Mok Fan managed awkwardly. “I didn’t say that...”

I just eyed the Green of his Aura, done up with a bit of Orange. The Irish Rovers might have to sue him. There were flares and spikes of envy and jealousy, heightened by his defensiveness over his Amulet, and responding to my unexpected power, age, gender, and calm in the face of him.

Plus frightening and aweing his Fire Spirit, who he was also very protective of.

I was younger than he was, and I was a Sage. I also had a terrifying combat reputation well-earned on the Littorals around the world, plus I was known as a Healer of incredible power. Even without my being able to wield any Element on command, on worldwide reputation and acknowledged power, I had outclassed and out-leveled him, and his ego was taking it on the chin.

Well, it was what it was. He was a brash hothead who had never been at a true disadvantage compared to any other mage of his age, and here he was confronted with me and all I meant and did, the two of us moving in very different circles and so never meeting before now.

I had even called him a Dark Mage, because he was one, but he doubtless didn’t like to think of himself that way. Heck, he even had a Dark Compact with a Shade Ruler, I could see the mark of it on his soul, woven through his Shadow and Chaos Elements!

“If the Champion of Cold Rice Mountain is opposed to this business arrangement, proceeding further is a lost cause and a complete waste of my time.” I turned on Mu Xuehua with a raised eyebrow.

Instead of caving, her face grew only more severe, and Mok Fan winced to see it. “I see our Champion does not trust me to engage in proper engagements with other factions on behalf of our Cold Rice Mountain. Perhaps Mok Fan would like to take over diplomatic relations on behalf of our people? Administrative duties? Legal consultations and binding agreements of economic activities? I can take up the Champion duties while he finds alliances more amenable to his well-trained and insightful eye, immaculate manners, and long-range plans.”

Mok Fan’s face had a grimace on it at the promise of no sex for days, at the least, and was waving his hands frantically. “No, no, Xuexue, you know that’s not what I meant! Please don’t foist that stuff off on me! You know you’re so much better at it than I am!”

“Then why are you undercutting my attempt to establish a relationship with a trading partner RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!” She didn’t raise her voice, but the air temperature dropped enough to send a thin layer of ice stealing across the fish pond, and it blew across his face and eyes specifically. He melted it in a second, but it was plain her displeasure far outweighed any problems he had with me as he caved promptly.

“Woops! I’m sorry, Xuexue! You, you just do whatever you think is best, and I’ll go off and feed the ducks right now!” He turned and scampered away with a complete lack of shame as Mu Xuehua glared after him, quickly disappearing from our sight.

The cute little Fire Spirit, however, had zipped around behind Mu Xuehua and was also shamelessly waving a fist after her master for his behavior and squeaking about his rudeness, earning herself a gentle pat on the head from Xuehua for her support.

“He will object to nothing,” Mu Xuehua stated firmly, and both Fuxian and I had to smile slightly at that. “He has as much patience for social niceties and paperwork as ice does for a hot plate.”

“Well, then, shall we resume our discussions and see how we can take shameless advantage of one another?” I asked rhetorically, and we got back down to business.

--------

The little Fire Belle ended up eating most of the snacks for us, which nobody begrudged the little thing. Well, not a little thing; she was actually a Ruler-Class Elemental Spirit, but preferred to lounge around in her immature form for ease of movement and conservation of energy. Her mature form was human-sized or larger, depending on her will and anger, and her Primal Flames could rise to rival those of any Dragon or Phoenix.

They assured me the first iteration of the warehouse to receive shipments would be up within a week, the many mages the Cold Rice Mountain group sponsored not being tied up with littoral duties while the Sea Tribes tore one another apart, and thus were now able to help out energetically.

I was just going to Teleport away after saying goodbyes, when a familiar voice blurted out, “Hey, I was hoping I could speak to Miss Fae before you left?”

I turned out to look at Mok Fan lounging in the hallway, while Mu Xuehua’s eyebrow twitched dangerously, and Mu Fuxian didn’t hide his annoyance.

“About what, Mr. Mok?” I asked, turning my head enough to catch him at the corner of my eye.

“Magic!” he replied promptly.

“Are you going to be trying to flex your eight Elements against my one, or something?” I asked archly.

“N-no!” he blurted out, rather too hastily as he shuffled his feet, although his face was guileless. “I just had some questions I think you can answer...”

I pivoted around. “Let’s hear them, then,” I said graciously.

“Uh, sure!” He’d obviously been hoping for a moment of privacy, but that wasn’t going to happen, or this building might go away. “I was wondering how your Magical Talent compares to mine and Xuexue’s!”

“I don’t have a Magical Talent, so I suppose the answer to that is yours is infinitely better?” I answered calmly.

His jaw dropped. Well, all of theirs did. “No, no way!” he blurted out, shaking a finger at me. “That’s not possible!”

“You would know if I was lying, so please stop accusing me of doing so,” I replied with just a little bit of chill. His eyelashes rimed, and he realized he was being stupid again.

“I, but...” he trailed off, batting at his face to shatter the ice when it wouldn’t melt. “How are you so good at magic, then?”

“I am probably the most intelligent being on the planet.”

He gaped. As admissions went, that one was pretty brutal.

It was Fuxian who leapt in before Mok Fan could stuff his foot in his mouth. “By what measure of intelligence?” he asked with the clipped air of someone also proud of his genius... and he was smart, there was no denying it.