Tian watched Lin make the tea. Her motions were skillful and practiced, but unenthusiastic. She had bluntly refused his hospitality, but understood that this conversation had to happen. Tian had noticed a recurring trait in all the hereditary disciples- if an elder said to do it, then it was done. Tian was quite obedient to his seniors, but with a few exceptions, it was an obedience born out of fear and pragmatism. For the hereditary disciples, it was more like obeying gravity.
Their seniors had ordered them to work together. Tian didn’t know just what connection Senior Deepwalker had with the Lin Clan, but it was clearly significant. So, even with all her grievance, she joined him in a common room, ready for a conversation neither wanted.
“I have been feeding Her Highness, like you said. Getting her used to my company and my vital energy.”
“Good. Establishing yourself as a source of food and security is necessary. That’s how she is thinking right now- hunger and danger. Everything else is secondary.”
“Is it time to go onto next steps?” Tian sipped the tea. His hand stilled in the air, and he took a second sip before lowering the cup. “Good tea. Very good. I don’t think I know this variety.”
“Yes. And you wouldn’t. It’s not from the Broad Sky Kingdom.”
“You have tea from outside the kingdom?” Tian’s eyes opened wide.
“Yes.” She didn’t elaborate. She didn’t have to. Tian thought she would have gotten along with Brother Long. At the very least, they could have communicated well.
Tian fell back to his old methods, and sank into silence. Eventually, Lin spoke again.
“There are techniques. Arts, really, but they take more than just manipulating your vital energy. At the most basic level, you just get a ‘feel’ for your companion. It’s sort of like an intuition about them. Sort of like thinking that they must be hungry or sleepy or something, but it feels more certain. That intuition grows into a kind of empathy, and eventually, telepathy. Communication without words. Without your words either. You can’t think “Let's go eat,” she won’t understand. You can think of eating. You can remember being hungry, or share the feeling of being hungry, and then the idea of hunting, or a memory of the two of you eating together or something.”
Tian nodded along. This was the most he had ever heard the wide eyed girl speak. Her words were like her tea making- skillful, practiced, and unenthusiastic. Something she had learned to do at the insistence of an elder. He wondered if she reached the Six Turns Cavern the same way he did- by an elder’s whim, to advance their faction.
She pulled out a pamphlet. “Start by reading this, and practicing the energy circulation pattern. It doesn’t do anything on its own, but it will put you in a relaxed, energized and receptive state that is useful for your training with the crane. The back of the booklet has more training exercises, working on your coordination and mutual empathy. When you reach the end of the booklet, you will follow the methods it describes to attempt telepathy. But you can’t jump to the end. It’s a process.”
“Thank you. What do I owe you for it?”
Lin hesitated, then grit her teeth. “Nothing. It’s part of the arrangement with the Monastery.” He didn’t think she was lying. It felt more like regret at missing the opportunity to screw him over. But this meeting was happening under the silent supervision of Elder Feng.
Tian nodded and finished his cup. He looked hopefully over at the pot. She poured another cup for him.
“Thank you. It really is excellent. What’s it called?”
“This tea? Golden Ridge Cang’s Ten Year.”
“That… is the name for this style of tea?”
“No, it’s the name for this particular tea. The name for the style is Harmony Village Tea.”
Tian had many, many questions. Lin’s face shut them down. She would talk about what she had been ordered to talk about, and that was it. He was going to gracefully accept it and take the small development in their relationship, but something about the thought niggled at him. He savored the tea as he thought. Just a touch sweet, but with more of a woody, nutty flavor. He gently smacked his lips. The sweetness was in the aftertaste, like a bare hint of plum. A bit odd, given the surprising richness of the tea and woodiness of the flavor, but pleasant.
Lin plainly liked it well enough. She poured herself a second cup.
“Do you resent me more for breaking through the cavern, or for humiliating you when I arrived at the Manor?” Tian asked.
She spilled the tea. She glared at him, furious.
“You bastard!”
“I might actually be, for all I know.” Tian nodded. “But I know you mean that as an insult. I’m still not sure what a necrophiliac is. None of my books explain it.”
That didn’t calm her down any.
“You were ready, totally ready, to kill me over an insult you didn’t even understand?”
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“I understood you were insulting me. And more importantly, insulting Sister Hong, Sister Su, and Brother Wang.”
“Killing someone over an insult. I take it back, you are the psychopath!”
Tian shook his head. “Sure, fine, I’m the crazy one. The question matters, though. Do you resent me more for passing, or for humiliating you? Because our elders want us to at least work together civilly. If it’s for humiliating you, I can apologize for that.”
It would be a hollow apology. He wasn’t sorry one bit. But Brother Fu had told him years ago that sometimes you have to apologize even if you didn’t do anything wrong, and this seemed like one of those times.
“And if it’s not?”
“Then I am going to have to think some more, because who made it through to the sixth chamber was at the whim of the Saintess, who explained to me in detail how she was eating all of us. You, me, everyone. Not just the ones who died, everyone. I can’t say I understood all of it, but I got the impression that it wasn’t just our death that fed her. It was all the lost potential.” Tian stared into Lin’s eyes, then took another sip of the tea.
“Really makes you wonder. The Saintess said that she doubted our elders understood what they agreed to when they made their arrangement with her. I am no longer sure that she is right. Sending promising kids to have their futures ruined in the hope of finding one or two powerful weapons to use seems entirely in character."
Tian thought he felt the qi in the air fluctuate for a moment.
“She said that?”
“She did. She might have been saying that as a way to sow distrust, of course.”
“But you believe her.” Lin’s wide eyes narrowed.
“About this? Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t think she is reconciled to her situation. I truly do believe that she wishes she could be kind.”
That got him a weird look. Tian shrugged. “Every room was lethal, but every room taught you how to clear it. They might not be fair. There might be some traps in there. But everyone who survived learned a lot. She wants us to learn. I suspect we are carrying her dao, somehow. We are not just food or survivors, we are disciples.”
Yes, he definitely felt a disturbance that time.
“That… seems insane.”
“Sister Lin, she’s an ancient ghost haunting the immortal bones she cultivated who knows how long ago, when she was Saintess of a sect that likely could have flattened Ancient Crane Mountain with a single finger. She spends all her time alone in the dark, waiting for her next chance to eat children. You tell me what part of that sounds ‘sane.’”
Lin collapsed against the back of the chair. The fine carvings on the wood were ignored. So were the paintings of soaring immortals on the wall, the gentle lights, the beautiful clouds drifting past the window. Tian knew she was lost in her memories. Was she fighting the vermilion bird? Did she box with the ugly turtle?
She had seemed surprised when he didn’t fight his way through the caverns. He was surprised she had. Sister Liren could be relied on to stab her way through any problem. Lin seemed more fragile. Tian tried a different tack.
“Sister Lin, how did you come to be sent into the caverns?”
“You are… an elite of the Outer Court of Ancient Crane Mountain.” Her voice was distant. “You said I cared more about my family than the sect. What you don’t understand is that the difference between the two is less than you think. I am a genuine member of the sect. I am also a genuine member of my clan. A clan which was entrusted by the Ancient Crane herself to look after her juniors, back when she still preached the dao across the width of the Kingdom. Do you have the faintest idea how many generations ago that was? How wide a family can spread and grow in that time? There is a good chance we are distantly related.”
Tian shook his head. He couldn’t imagine it. For one thing, they looked nothing alike.
“And I can say that because, mathematically, I am distantly related to most of the kingdom. Time, big families, and our kids usually survive long enough to have kids of their own.” Lin continued. “We aren’t a close family, or a very warm one. How could we be? Beyond a certain point, are you even still part of the family?”
“I imagine it’s different once you ring the Dragon Calling Bell.”
“It is. You go from one of thousands to one of more than a hundred scattered over all the family branches. I am a genuine elite of two outer courts. When I didn’t break through the Null cavern, I was condemned to a second rate life in both the sect and my family. The very best of the second rate. But second rate. Incapable of reaching the apex. A fine Core Disciple, one day. And what do our elders want?”
Tian bowed his head. The elders wanted the one or two juniors who could change everything. The masses only existed to prop up the tiny few elite. Even the names made it plain- Direct Disciples, those who truly inherited the Sect. Lin was destined to be a servant for the rest of her life. A powerful, valued one. But a servant. Unless she broke ties entirely with the sect and her family. Something more easily said than done.
And here he was, one of her future masters. A mutilated jungle rat, who cheated his way through the trial. Or something like that, anyway. No wonder the Saintess didn’t let her through to the final cavern. He could only imagine the meal her severed future provided. She must have thought he and Sister Liren were better choices to carry on her Dao. Dinner and disciples. What could be better?
“I wonder if I taste good. Perhaps she likes bitter flavors.” Lin’s voice faded from distant to hollow. She had figured it out too.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t good enough or smart enough. She was just prey. She could cry out for justice all she wanted, but… did a tiger owe the deer an apology? And what kind of justice could her elders be bothered to give her? She wasn’t going to reach the apex. Perhaps her elders would make it up to her with a pill and a nice job somewhere. She could really make a contribution that way.
“The more I talk to Brother Wang, the more I think he makes some good points.” Tian muttered.
“Yes. Me too.”
They sank back into silence. Tian wondered what Elder Feng was making of all of this. Probably ready to slap him to death. Whether she did it before or after slapping many other people to death was still unknown.
Lin started laughing. It was an ugly, broken sound. She hunched over her knees, grabbing her arms hard. Tian stood and tried to pat her back.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” She slapped his hand away hard enough to numb him from the wrist down.
“Sorry.” Tian sighed. “Sorry. It’s not my fault, but sorry. I don’t know how we fix this. I really don’t.” He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. Trying to see the girl he loathed, rather than a victim. Another broken child, crushed under the weight of two mountains.
It got harder and harder to see the vicious animal. The damned lamp in his heart banished the comforting shadows. Compassion could be ruthless that way.