Adrianna smirked at his reply but didn’t say why. She didn’t reply for a moment, instead just sitting quietly as she was, taking in the sounds around them. The drunken chatter and laughing from the group whose spontaneous project she had temporarily stalled filled the patio.

“Anyone in some form of law enforcement is in a good position to learn Cultivation, honestly,” she said eventually. “We’re technically physically and mentally capable of executing the techniques. Back in China criminals were just as good if not better, so we had to one-up them. It should be the same for you, as a werewolf hunter who needs to figure out how to outsmart a werewolf. Quick I wouldn’t say, but if you’re willing to give it a regular hour of your time every week, you’d probably have some interesting, if small, techniques up your sleeve.”

She held out a closed hand and began listing things, uncurling fingers to count. “Anything to do directly with the Chinese language might be more difficult, as you have to pronounce the incantations perfectly. Most of the traps we used in our werewolf hunt are all invoked, but if you’re up to the challenge I would try my best. That’s one. Similarly with shamanism, which is more about beseeching spirits to aid you. The easiest to learn - relatively - is using qi, which I demonstrated earlier.” Adrianna glanced towards him.

“We started out learning about how everything in the world has a balance, and using magic must be in harmony with everything else,” she explained. “The Five Elements, for example, are intertwined in three different cycles, and we’re all a part of it. If you understand that concept in practice, you just might find yourself doing a little Cultivation here and there. And who knows, even if you don’t quite get it you come away with physical and mental exercises to keep yourself healthy.” She shrugged. “I see this as a win-win.”

The Auror looked back at her pint of beer, a little more sombre than she had expected to be. “I only hope that I don’t go through a repeat of the case we had in China. I had to make some hard decisions then that might probably earn me a suspension over here, and for the lack of a better word some Cultivation practices you might find… inhumane.”

Adrianna looked back at him. “Have you ever had to eliminate a threat with extreme prejudice that would have made a community object if they knew in terms of werewolf rights here? China doesn’t have werewolf rights which didn’t make the situation any better, as you can imagine.”

For someone who’d claimed that she’d be a poor teacher, Xin seemed to be awfully willing to think through what it would take to instruct someone.  Kurby listened silently, one eyebrow cocked as he sipped at his beer.  He wasn’t law enforcement and he’d never had desire to be, but he reckoned he’d probably had more regular practice at dealing with physical confrontations than most of the Aurors. 

Besides, an hour each week didn’t sound like a lot. Maybe he wouldn’t be cut out for the intellectual pieces of this, but he was curious enough to give it a try.

After the stress of the past few days — everything leading up to the full moon, the aftermath at the safe house, Alec Carter’s death, the sudden appearance of the bodies this morning — it felt good just to be somewhere, in a place that felt a world away from the week’s disaster at the Ministry, surrounded by good-natured chatter that he could be amongst but not directly part of.  Listening to Xin rattle off her thoughts, kicking around ideas about trying something new: it felt like a much needed chance to catch his breath and step back, to remember that the rest of the world didn’t wax and wane with the coming moon.

He leaned back and sipped at his pint, ankles crossed in front of him and one elbow propped up on the wooden backrest behind him. Xin was gazing down at her beer.  But something in the Auror’s tone had changed: a little more somber, more contemplative. 

Suddenly, she looked straight at him.

”“Have you ever had to eliminate a threat…?” she began.

Kurby blinked hard.  That wasn’t the conversational direction that he’d been expecting.

“Uh,” he said, straightening slightly, as he tried to catch up with what she’d said.  Had he ever used extreme prejudice?  What, had she never heard a word about him or the Werewolf Capture Unit from anyone at the Ministry? 

“It’d be a bit of a challenge to have anything to do with werewolves and not make people object,” he said after a beat, his brows knitting.  He couldn’t help but peer a bit more closely at her; the change in topic had come a bit like a bludger flying out of the stands towards the Quidditch pitch.  “Nobody wants to admit what’s necessary until they’re the ones standin’ face-to-face with a snarling monster.  So yeah, I have,” he said matter-of-factly, rolling his shoulders in a shrug.   “There’s more’n one reason why I’m not the most popular person at the Ministry.”