While a part of Maryam would have been content to look at Autumn's face for longer, she knew she had some annoying things to worry about instead.
She let Nevus' body fall to the floor. He toppled sideways, and some of his long hair—which he had worn loose—slid to the ground as well, revealing slivers of the back of his neck.
Strangely, his neck had circular scars, almost as if someone had driven spikes into it. Maryam knelt down next to him and pulled up his sleeve to find similar marks appearing in a ring around his arm.
She suspected she might find many other such marks in different places on his body, but she didn't have time to properly check before the arbitrator told her to step away from him.
Maryam still had to go to Central Hall to pick up her permanent identification token, as well as her living quarters assignment. These were all things she should have received as part of the process of entering the sect, if she hadn't instead been hauled off for discipline by some overeager elders.
Fortunately, Zaionz did not want her excessively bad treatment of her charges to become widely known, so she had apparently decided to wait until the buzz around Maryam died down before properly seeking revenge.
As Maryam approached Central Hall, she noticed the air getting thicker and thicker with very pure energy. Along the way, she sensed strands of violent natural energy drifting in the same direction she was headed, as if pulled by something.
As such, when she reached Central Hall, she was unsurprised to see that it was surrounded by decorative arrangements of pebbles. It was similar to the alchemy department, but on a much larger scale. The size variation in the stones and the complexity of the arrangements were on an entirely different level.
She could see some parts that were half-completed. Perhaps the workers had gone to watch her fight.
Maryam went into the building to complete her initiation into the sect.
Instead of a temporary elder's soul brand, the sect had a system for disciples where a permanent brand was left on their soul using a magical slip of jade. Anyone who had authority over the disciple could use the jade slip to activate the brand.
She let the administrator brand her with the jade. To Maryam, this type of brand was no more difficult to handle than the one given by Nevus.
When she left the building, the workers had returned to work on the stone arrangements. In fact, the workers looked quite familiar. They were the boy and the girl who had gotten into a fight over a table in one of Autumn's inns.
"Olecter? Intina? What are you two doing here?"
"Ah! The angry lady from the inn!" said Intina.
"We're here to help Autumn with her main business," Olecter informed her.
"Her main business?" Maryam asked.
"Yeah! You keep chasing after our boss without even knowing what she does?" Intina seemed eager to jump on her weakness.
"How would you know who I chase?"
"Jacob told us!"
Maryam cursed Jacob silently.
"Autumn is the most talented landscaper in the region," said Olecter haughtily, ignoring Intina, "Despite being a mortal, her arrangements are so effective that she's even been commissioned by the sect to improve the atmosphere and aesthetic."
According to Intina and Olecter, Autumn was currently meeting with members of the sect's logistics department. She typically came by at the end of the day to inspect and fix any errors in Intina and Olecter's work.
"Where are you staying?" asked Intina, "We haven't done the living quarters yet, so if you tell me, I'll tell you approximately when we'll be going there. Then you can probably catch Autumn when she comes to do final adjustments."
Surprised and amused at Intina's sudden and suspicious helpfulness, Maryam showed her the slip she had just gotten from Central Hall. It had her living quarters written on it.
Intina told her they'd be working on that area in a week and a day.
Maryam wanted some time to consolidate and fortify her two cores, so she took advantage of the peace and stayed in her living quarters to do that.
The living quarters consisted of a tiny, one-story house and a small yard. It had a bedroom, a bathroom and a room for working, which was enough for Maryam's satisfaction.
After a week and a day, she noticed Intina and Olecter's presences. They worked on the yards of her neighbours, skipping her house entirely.
Maryam went outside.
"Hey! Why are you skipping my house?"
"We ran out of stones!" shouted Intina.
"As if."
"Well, maybe if you wanted us to work on your place, you shouldn't have banged our heads together back then!" Intina seemed quite happy with her revenge.
"And Autumn is okay with you not doing your job because of personal grudges?"
"Autumn is the one who suggested this as a method of paying you back," Olecter responded coolly.
Maryam returned indoors in a much better mood, thinking about Autumn coming by for final inspections.
And indeed, in the evening, Maryam sensed a familiar presence walking around near her house.
"Hey, gorgeous!" Maryam said loudly, standing in the door of her house, "Want to come in for some tea?"
Autumn glared at her, but she still walked towards Maryam's place.
"I don't have a sitting room, so we'll have to sit on my bed," Maryam told Autumn, earning her another unamused look.
The tea was quite good.
"So, I hear you're the most well-known landscaper in the region?"
"Yes, it's always been a passion of mine," said Autumn, with a polite smile.
"Really?"
"Of course."
"With stones that seemingly draw dangerous energies?"
"They draw it in to purify it. I just want to make the sect a better place for cultivators."
"And apparently, for some reason, you don't want these arrangements to be around my house?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Autumn, sipping her tea, "My helpers made that decision due to their personal grudges."
"I'm not sure what you're up to," said Maryam, "But thank you."
Autumn met Maryam's eyes and continued to drink her tea in silence.
As time passed, Maryam and Autumn talked about various happenings. Apparently, Intina and Olecter were Autumn's only helpers. The sect had limitations on the number of individuals Autumn could bring into its grounds, and the two of them had some unusually strong talents.
Maryam also found that Autumn spent most of her spare time in the sect adjusting the arrangement of stones around Central Hall.
"It's really important to me, so I want it to be perfect," Autumn explained.
Finally, the conversation turned to Maryam's experiences as a new disciple, and her sentence dispute.
Autumn's request to not kill the elder came to mind.
"Nevus?" asked Maryam, with the tone of someone who is mildly interested.
"Elder Nevus is a bit of a sad story," said Autumn, "He used to be quite the promising young cultivator. He was even in charge of all discipline enforcement for the yearly roundups."
"Yearly roundups?" Song High's memories contained information about an event that Maryam concluded was probably the equivalent of the yearly roundup in her sect's region, but Maryam found that she liked hearing Autumn explain things, no matter how mundane.
"Yes. Officially, it's called 'Early Recruitment'. It's when the sects have all the three-year-old children tested for their aptitude so they can bring the talented ones in as disciples. I don't know what name it goes by in your region."
"Oh, we also called it 'Early Recruitment'. I hadn't heard it referred to as 'yearly roundups', though. But why would discipline enforcement for that event be a big deal?"
Autumn responded with a trace of mockery in her tone.
"Some parents try to hide their children. The sect would hate for a child's talent to be wasted by parents who selfishly try to keep them at home, so it's very important that such actions are discouraged. It's quite a large event; taking such a significant role in it commands considerable prestige."
"Then, what happened to Nevus? How did he end up stuck giving speeches to older recruits?" At this point, Maryam was genuinely quite curious.
"The story is that several years ago, he went out to hunt a spectacular high-tier snake beast. Killing it would bring him great glory. At the time, he was at the peak of Bodily Rebirth. Nobody knows exactly how it happened, but he must have somehow gotten injured while fighting it, because when he came back, he had fallen back to Core Creation—and his core had become very unstable. From then on, all he has been able to do is focus on maintaining his core. Even so, it has been slowly degrading. Having lost his talent, the sect relocated him to an appropriate position."
"That would explain why he's so obsessed with status and power."
"He was always cruel," said Autumn, "but he wasn't always a bootlicker."
"How did he take the demotion?"
"He wasn't particularly affected by it. You see, he had other things to worry about. Soon after his demotion, his young son went missing. As of now, his son's fate is still unknown. His wife—a young and beautiful woman—went out to search for him, but—"
"Let me guess," said Maryam, "Nobody knows what happened to her either?"
Autumn's lips curled into a slight smile.
"The sect found her body, but it was mangled almost beyond recognition. From her expression, one can only imagine how much pain she was in when she died. It must have been horrific."
Maryam had always been reasonably certain that Autumn hadn't asked her to spare Nevus out of pity. This exchange cemented it. Everything Autumn was saying was public knowledge, but to Maryam, it was starting to sound rather like a confession.
"So then, why...?" Maryam asked.
"Elder Nevus has a good life in front of him. He has a young disciple whom he cares about like family, and a decent position in a sect that will shelter him and give him power until he dies. He hasn't found out what happened to his son yet. He might even be alive and well. With so much left to live for, wouldn't it be such a shame if he died so early?"
Autumn's lips carried a gentle smile, but her eyes were very, very cold.