License to Cultivate [Progression Fantasy Tower Climber] (FOUR books completed!)

The first indication Inquisitor Pak Yoonji had that her carefully planned and orchestrated trial wasn't going according to plan was when she arrived at the courtroom an hour ahead of the trial to find it almost empty.

She had been intending to order the bailiff to have the prisoner brought in. But other than a low-ranking functionary lounging in the corner, there was no-one present in the low-ceilinged hearing chamber.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded. "We have a Grand Treason trial to begin here in an hour, and it seems no preparation's made for it."

The clerk had been poring over some documents. He glanced up, then leapt to his feet, bowed low, and said, "Forgiveness, Exalted One. This one did not hear you come in. This one regrets to inform you that Grand Inquisitor Ro Daen has ordered this trial relocated. In accordance with that, it also will not begin until noon."

"Relocated?" Yoonji demanded. She looked around the courtroom. It was one of the Inquisition's best, a windowless chamber buried deep beneath the surface of the earth. The walls were worked with scripts and constructs to prevent anyone not specifically authorized from using lux inside the walls. There was the witness stand with its truth-sayer constructs built in, and the high bench where the judges could sit and glare down, and room for the handful of carefully selected witnesses. There were half a dozen chambers just like it along this corridor, used for hearings and trials. Rarely did this grand chamber, which had room for five Inquisitors to sit in judgment, get used.

The clerk looked down at his papers and fidgeted with them, as though hoping the answers she wanted could be found there.

Yoonji glared, but he wasn't looking. "Very well," she said through clenched teeth. "Where is the trial, and why was I not informed?"

As if on cue, a messenger stumbled through the door of the courtroom. She was wearing the black and red of the Inquisition, a low-ranked functionary. She bowed low.

"Your Excellency, Grand Inquisitor Ro Daen requests your presence at the Arena of Divine Justice and Mercy."

Yoonji's pulse quickened. "He's moved the trial there?"

That was preposterous. The arena stood at the center of the city and was used by all the various departments for official events, as well as the very rare public appearances of the Emperor. It had seating capacity for half the city, and its open field provided standing room for most of the rest on those occasions in which the Emperor wished his closest loyal citizens to glimpse his glory.

It was massive overkill for a simple trial.

The messenger presented her a thin missive sealed with the Grand Inquisitor's own mark. Yoonji took it, exuding a bit of green lux to verify the seal against the Grand Inquisitor's personal lux blend, and opened it.

Scrawled across, it read:

"Inquisitor Pak,

Our apologies for the late notice, but arrangements were only finalized late last night, and you could not be reached. The trial, of which you are the prosecuting Inquisitor, has been moved, as this messenger will tell you."

The blunt note needed no signature.

She looked up. "I was in my rooms all last night."

"Your servants said you were not to be disturbed," the messenger replied.

Yoonji crumpled the ball and hurled it along with a snip of yellow lux. It burst into flames as it shot toward the messenger's head. "They know to tell me if the Grand Inquisitor sends word!"

The messenger flinched, and Yoonji fought to control herself. This was not a display worthy of an Inquisitor. She drew herself up. "Very well."

Yoonji stormed out of the building and then leapt into the sky, ignoring the ordinary custom that high-ranked cultivators should not flaunt their abilities here in the capital. She was an Inquisitor, here on imperial business.

She shot across the sky, soaring over the heads of the busy people, and quickly found she did not like what she saw from above. The streets were busy, as expected at this time of day, but most of the people were flowing toward the arena, not to their usual workstations.

By the time Yoonji soared over the vast rim and looked down, the stands were nearly half full. People wore robes, and holiday seemed to fill the stands as they laughed and chatted.

Yoonji arced her flight and alighted on the grand platform erected in the exact middle of the arena. It was a square, a hundred feet on the side, and lifted into the air thirty feet. In the center was a single chair with shackles on it, facing a row of thirteen black thrones, each marked with a particular Inquisitor's seal. Her own was on the far right.

There were raised grandstands flanking the stage, offering a closer and better view than the arena seating, covered in silken awnings in the colors and designs of several notable sects on the left. The right-hand side bore the banners of various imperial departments. They too were filling up with high-ranked cultivators and important officials alike.

Grand Inquisitor Ro Daen was already present, along with three of the other Inquisitors. Yoonji strode toward him, the breeze whipping her robes out behind her. She didn't bother to conceal her anger and dismay. "Inquisitor, what is the meaning of this?"

Ro Daen was an older man. Had he been mortal, she would have said in his seventies, with a wispy white beard and a bald pate he covered with a tall black silk hat. He turned to her and gave her a smile, but as he did so his will flicked out and pressed against hers, a quick warning that he, not she, was the Grand Inquisitor. Yoonji kept herself from stumbling as she felt the force of his will against hers. His intent pressed on her: I serve, so I rule.

The Grand Inquisitor had taken his position hundreds of years ago, before the last Prism War. And while no one doubted his power and authority, he ostentatiously declared it was all due to his service to the Emperor.

Yoonji drew her breath in deep and spoke again. "Apologies for my manner, Grand Inquisitor. I was only informed of the changes to this trial a few minutes ago. May I ask why the arrangements I have spent the last week making have been overturned?"

"Well, Inquisitor Pak, I know you have been busy working on your case against the accused and ensuring all legal formalities are handled. You therefore have not been privy to the various calls upon my office in the past few days by important sects and officials here in the capital. With the unsettled political situation, we believe this trial has taken on a significance which you are not aware. Several of the sects seem to believe the Inquisition has overstepped its bounds and is attempting to proscribe a sect."

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"What?" Yoonji demanded, blinking.

It was preposterous on so many levels. For one, only the Emperor could proscribe a sect. For another, Morning Mist had been proscribed centuries ago. And for a third, she wasn't trying to outlaw the sect, but to bring a few recalcitrant cultivators to justice.

She shook her head. "How do they even know what's going on?" The Inquisition's business was its own. To have details of a trial bruited about in advance was unprecedented.

"Nevertheless, we have been attempting to be more transparent in our dealings, especially in these troubled times," the Grand Inquisitor said calmly. "It is essential that the sects and the other departments of government have complete faith in what we do. With this rebellion brewing, we shall be more active than ever in rooting out treason and crime in the Empire. They must understand that we act with the Emperor's will and that our judgment is impartial and unquestionable."

It all started to come together. This was political. It had to be. Someone was pulling strings behind her back in order to get this done. Who, and why? The only answer she could think was— "Prism Eri," she blurted out.

The Inquisitor cocked his head, which she took as a request to continue, so she went on.

"Her supporters are behind this. I was on the trail of a plot the Prism is even now laboring to enact. It led me to the Morning Mist sect, and the so-called Grandmaster invoked his rights. That's why I brought him back here to stand trial. I've had nothing but delays ever since, and now this. They're trying to keep me from getting back on their trail."

She was thinking frantically. The man she had wrung for information had indicated the next phase of the plot was to begin in only a few weeks. She had time still to make that rendezvous, but should this trial drag on, or leave her discredited, Eri might well be able to move before she was ready.

The Inquisitor's white eyebrows twitched like the legs of a dying beetle. "Inquisitor Pak, I am certain you did not mean to accuse me of being either a willing accomplice or an unwitting dupe to a rebel Prism."

Frantically, Yoonji tried to backtrack. "Forgive me, Grand Inquisitor. I was merely thinking aloud. No, of course, I don't believe you to be either of those things. Merely that the outcry had to be the result of..."

He raised a hand. "Enough," he said coldly. "It is done. You will present your case here before the eyes of the people." He lowered his voice. "Of course, what's really got them coming out is the fact that this is a trial for you-know-what." He avoided invoking the fatal words. "They're hoping to see the Emperor himself appear to dispense justice."

Yoonji allowed herself a moment of happy fantasy to imagine the Emperor appearing in the sky and destroying Noren with a blast of concentrated lux. She hoped it would take just long enough for the fool to realize what was happening.

With that to settle her, Yoonji subsided.

The sun crawled higher in the sky. The other Inquisitors appeared. Yoonji was shocked. She hadn't seen some of them in years. For all thirteen to be in the capital at once...

She wandered over to a group that included Inquisitor Mahai Yen, the closest thing she had to a friend. Mahai Yen turned and included Yoonji in their conversation. "I was just telling Inquisitor Dahor here how much I admire your dogged pursuit of this case," Inquisitor Mahai Yen told her. "With all of the Prism affairs we've been concerning ourselves with, it's good to see someone still remembering to look at the lesser cultivators for signs of rot. We can get a little too focused on what seems important and easily overlook an infestation that might, with time, prove troublesome."

Yoonji grit her teeth. One was never sure with Mahai Yen whether she was speaking with slippery words. She decided to take them at face value and bowed her head. "In fact, it was while investigating schemes of Prism Eri that I discovered this. They are not disconnected."

"Huh. Well," Mahai Yen said. "I suppose you've been busy here in the capital. You may not have heard the latest, but reports say that the Emperor and Prism Nai Lin fought three rebel Prisms in Samoth Province two days ago. I've heard that one of the rebels was killed, and that Prism Nai Lin is very high in the Emperor's favor right now."

She lowered her voice."What I've actually heard," she muttered, "is that Prism Nai Lin has her intent on becoming Empress."

Yoonji blinked.

"You mean—"

Inquisitor Dahor cleared his throat. "I've spoken with a man whose wife's sister has a lover in Prism Nai Lin's retinue. Word is she's already styling herself as the Consort of Heaven's Chosen."

What Prism Nai Lin would gain from such an alliance, Yoonji could only guess. The Emperor was eternal and divine. Giving him an heir didn't seem like a particularly profitable endeavor, not when he had so many concubines in his harem. But then, she was not yet a Prism and hadn't spent decades or centuries thinking about politics on that level.

"Regardless, it's the trial here that I'm concerned about."

Mahai Yen raised a hand and smiled. "Yes, yes, we're all very eager to hear your case against this fool. Is it true he accused himself of Grand Treason?"

Out of habit, Yoonji flinched at those words. She shook her head. "One of his disciples, which is, I think, in many ways worse."

"Yes, indeed." Inquisitor Dahor covered a yawn. "Ah, it seems to be starting. Shall we take our seats?"

Still flustered, Yoonji sat down, ready for the trial to begin.

"Bring in the accused," Grand Inquisitor Ro Daen ordered.

And with a blast of trumpets, the affair began.

Across the arena from their thrones, two vast doors were thrown open to the street beyond. In marched, not Noren between a couple of guards, as Yoonji had expected, but an entire procession.

At the front were a hundred or so people marching in the robes of the Morning Mist sect, carrying banners and various golden instruments. They proceeded in and formed a line, a pair of lines between the stage and the door. Those with instruments raised them to their lips and began to play a fanfare.

Next entered eight palanquins, each the colors of a different sect, all of which Yoonji recognized as powerful groups with branches here in the capital. The palanquins entered, took up places at the ends of the rows, before dispersing their occupants.

Yoonji studied the guild colors and crests. They were representatives of the remaining charter sects, those who could trace their existence back to the dawn of the Empire. More Prisms had come from their sects than any other, though by custom a Prism established his or her own sect upon ascension. Conversely, no Inquisitor had ever been appointed from one of their number. There was a rivalry between the Inquisition and the Council.

The representatives of the charter sects mounted the steps and lined themselves up across from the Inquisitors. Grand Inquisitor Ro Daen rose, extending his arms in welcome.

"Greetings, honored guests," he said. "We are pleased to have you with us today."

One of their number, a man who, by appearance, was in his mid-thirties, but whose spiritual presence rivaled that of the Grand Inquisitor, spoke. His voice reverberated around the arena, reinforced by his will and his intent.

"Grand Inquisitor, the charter sects are here today to watch with keen interest these proceedings. It has come to our attention that the sect you are holding on trial today was formerly of our number, though it has been proscribed for many years. We have a keen interest in learning the truth here."

The Grand Inquisitor cleared his throat, looked somewhat taken aback.

"Grandmaster Onyanat, thank you for your time here. We of the Inquisition have nothing to fear from extra scrutiny, and it was my pleasure to accede to your requests. Of course, please come and be welcome."

He extended a hand. A bridge of lux appeared between the platform and the stands on the right, which were decked out in sect colors. The sect masters proceeded across to join their sect members. Each, as they passed, gave Yoonji a long, cool stare. Her heartbeat skipped.

She had not expected anything of this nature when Grandmaster Noren had made his outrageous claim to be a member of one of the charter sects. She had written it off as the sort of grandiose thing any suspect might say, but now the remaining members were affirming that. They would know, wouldn't they? Or would they? The records dating back so far were hazy, as she knew. But who could possibly say what a sect might have in their secret vaults and libraries?

No matter. Grand treason was grand treason.

If Morning Mist had been a charter sect, it had been proscribed by the Emperor, destroyed for good cause many years ago. That only made it more likely for the guilt of Noren and his disciple to be absolutely established here today.

The Grand Inquisitor sat back down. All attention went back to the doors. Yoonji found herself holding her breath.

But she still wasn't prepared for what happened next.