The Agate River got its name from the layers of multicolored rock that lined the many canyons and deep riverbanks along its length. It was an exciting river to live next to. You could either live near a canyon and go whistle for water, or you could be near a rare stretch of reasonably shallow banks and enjoy brutal floods.
If you could manage the flooding, you got to enjoy some of the very best fishing in the Broadsky Kingdom, top quality farming, and an excellent waterway. The Agate connected several major cities before eventually traveling out to the Green Dragon Country and, with good fortune, ultimately reaching the sea.
Fishing was a nice hobby, but a low income occupation. Some who lived along the river cast their nets for richer catches. Bandits often raided up and down the river, chasing after the merchants and transport companies. Riverside towns, humble fishing villages or even roadside inns became dens of crouching tigers and hidden dragons.
Mortals and immortals alike traveled along the Agate, mixing together discreetly in the tea houses and brothels of riverside towns. Bandits and outlaws were met by wandering chivalrous martial experts, and their clashes were legendary. It was a heady, swirling madness, laid over some of the most beautiful scenery Tian had ever seen.
Hong was pushing the oar, moving the old wooden fishing boat up river at a pace that would have a mortal boatman sweating. They had found the boat half ruined on the riverbank, and had spent a few fun days patching it up. Neither had the faintest idea what they were doing, but with a little violence and a lot of improvisation, they made it work. Tingling with anticipation as they hauled it down the riverbank for her grand return.
It launched into the Agate with a mighty splash! Tian, as the senior brother, took the oar first. He managed to steer the boat in circles for five minutes, then crashed into a rock. Hong took the oar off him, and never gave it back.
Tian marveled at the deep purple and warm yellow rocks, marveled at the brilliant blue sky, marveled at the darting red and black dragonflies. It was all so beautiful. So far from the wasteland and the dump. Moved, he pulled out his bamboo flute.
“Put it back.”
“It’s the perfect moment!”
“Only if you could actually play the flute.”
“I’m getting better. I think I’ve almost got the hang of playing scales.”
“What a shame you don’t have the hang of playing a tune. Put it away, or you can row.” Liren was firm.
“How could I play and row?” Tian shook his head at the silliness of his sister.
“You could not.”
Tian grumbled and put away the flute. It had started as a bit of oddness suggested by Daoist Steelshimmer, but the idea had been growing on him. Unfortunately, he hadn’t a single clue about how to play.
Hong leaned into the oar as the river narrowed and they entered a canyon. Bands of tan, red, purple, brown, even muddy, mossy green rocks lined the high walls. They passed other boats struggling through the waters. Some long and thin fishing boats groaning with arowena or carp. Barges poled by sweating bargemen, laden with rice, or timber, or iron ore. Some bright red pleasure boats sailed merrily downstream, filled with laughing women and smiling men reclining on peony-pink silk and feeding each other wine and slices of pear or mango or peeled lychees. There was always something happening. Always something to see.
Tian and Hong loved it. Every day was interesting, and best of all, nobody told them what to do. For a pair of fifteen year old immortals, it was a dream come true.
They worked their way up river, taking a tributary that led to a small lake surrounded by swaying trees and lined with dense rushes. The smell of the marsh edge, cut by forest and lakewater. The song of the frogs in the reeds, and the cry of birds carrying over the calm waters. There was a well maintained dock of weathered wood stretching into the lake, and a big sign above it- Lone Saber Academy.
The Snow Grace Crane had already flown ahead of them, and was happily fishing in the reeds. They were pretty familiar with Lone Saber Academy, having visited a few times. As far as she was concerned, this was prime fishing territory and therefore a good place. She was particularly fond of some of the water plants. Very tasty, in her opinion, and rare finds.
Hong rowed them to the dock, then Tian hopped out and tied up the boat. The two guards at the dock bowed to them in greeting.
“Daoist Tian, Daoist Hong, welcome back. Was your trip successful?”
Tian bowed back as Hong jumped up onto the dock. As he came up from his bow, he summoned the fifty blood stained yellow bandanas to his hands. After displaying them, he stowed them away again.
“It’s good to be back, Daoist Mu. And it went quite well. Is Academy Master Yu around?”
“I will check for you. In the meantime, please rest a while in the guest house. It’s a hot day, even on the river.”
“Thank you, Daoist Mu. That is very kind.” Tian cupped his hands and walked towards the guest house. They barely had time for a cup of cold barley tea before Academy Master Yu arrived.
“I hear you two had a successful trip.” The old man had the remnants of what had once been a heroic physique. Thinned with age, but still carrying the posture of someone who had proved all he needed to more than a century before.
Tian and Hong rose, bowed, and, being familiar with the elder, simply dumped the bandanas on the ground.
“Hmm. Not the whole bandit gang, but two thirds of it. None of the bandanas are carrying the Black Lilly, though. Their core is untouched.”
“Yes. We came to ask if Elder Yu knew the route to their water fortress. The job was to clear out the raiding party going after your farmers, but we wouldn’t mind taking on a bit of extra work.” Tian smiled politely.
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The elder rolled his eyes. “I’m sure you wouldn’t. Do you think my little place could afford to hire the two of you to clear a whole damn fortress? Just the bounty on these fifty will have me economizing for the rest of the month, and no major expenses next month either.” The old expert swept up the bandanas with a wave of his left hand, his right resting on his saber. Nothing threatening about it. That’s just where it was most comfortable. Tian had seen him gently stroking the hilt if he had to think something over, or if he was lost in memory.
Hong gave Tian a look. Tian half rolled his eyes. “Elder, we don’t have to be paid in spirit stones. Medicine, high quality food or wine, books on medicine, or spearplay, or rope dart arts, palm arts, some boxing manual that you don’t have much use for but we might find interesting. Good letter paper and ink. Ahh…” Tian looked over at Hong who had buried her face in her hands.
“Elder, what my good brother here is trying to say is that you are old friends with his father, and while he isn’t willing to work for free, he’s willing to work for whatever you can spare.”
Elder Yu laughed lightly. “That old monster got a son and rose to the heavens. What strange games fortune plays on us all.” His smile turned soft. “Yes, I have some odds and ends you might find useful, and I’ll send some of the boys out fishing for Gold Belly Carp. That’s a fish worthy of an Emperor’s table. And you, Daoist Hong? Is this enough to satisfy your purse?”
Hong smiled politely and cupped her hands. “If I didn’t have my family to think of, I’d take a bowl of rice and some side dishes for my fee. It’s good to see cultivators tending to the mortals.”
That got a bigger laugh, some of the old roughness rising in his voice. “To cultivate the Dao, one must cultivate virtue. The sage makes the smallest move at the perfect time, moving so far in advance, the calamities of the future may be brushed away with a single hand. Then having achieved all they needed to, they renounce all honors and the worship of the masses. They lay down glory, return to their unlined linens and live quietly in seclusion. Not waiting to be called again. Simply existing in the moment.”
The two juniors bowed in gratitude for the teaching. They had been hearing versions of that same speech for most of their lives, and it was the ethos they embraced.
“I cannot force the peasantry to study the Dao. But I can use my study of the Dao to give them its blessings. It seems that Junior Hong is much the same as me.”
Hong blinked, then nodded vigorously. “Elder has truly seen through my heart. I am flattered beyond words to be compared to the Elder.”
The old saber master nodded. “Yes, I, too, am a violent prick that hates bandits to the depths of his guts and pretties up his unpleasant hobbies with rhetoric. Rest a bit, I’ll have someone bring some lunch and a map.”
Tian admired a painting of a fierce-eyed cultivator charging headlong into a mob of demons. He very loudly refrained from saying anything.
“Oh shut up.”
Tian grinned and kept looking at the picture. Whoever had painted it clearly had been painting from life. He recognized some of the demons from the desert, and the way the cultivator was rushing forward, the way they held the saber, all spoke of someone who had sublimated martial arts into every breath and movement.
The Lone Saber Academy was a pretty common sort of minor sect. The founder was a Level Ten from another academy that got permission to found his own school. The current Academy Master was the fourth generation, and they would probably last another generation or two. Then it would simply fade away. They didn’t have some deep inheritance. There were no Heavenly Realm cultivators it could boast. If you had modest talents and were sincerely committed to practicing the saber, it wasn’t a bad place to study. They even counted some mortals amongst their students.
By the standards of other mortals, they were all grandmasters. People who had raised their saber play to the level of supreme excellence and were offered a glimpse of a world most couldn’t even imagine. Tian had to admit, in terms of pure skill, those mortals exceeded many immortal saber users he had met. But what use is skill when the incoming chop moves at speeds you cannot perceive, and your counter-blow cannot even cut the skin of your enemy?
It had to be galling. Still, there were many amongst those who journeyed on the Agate River who saw the silver waist pendant with its fierce “Saber” symbol, saw the blue and gold tassel hanging from the single saber at the waist, and decided that today was a bad day for a fight.
To see a level you could never reach, after a lifetime of crushing all comers, was gutting. But to be able to say “I am good enough to be acknowledged by the Immortals and to count myself amongst their number,” that was a true honor.
Tian often wondered how many were burned in that gap, and fell to heresy. It didn’t seem to be a problem at the Academy, but he wouldn’t swear to it.
Lunch was rice with vegetables charred in a wok, and topped with slivers of green onions and fresh river fish. It wasn’t as good as the meals they ate at the Windblown Manor, but it was satisfying and neither Hong nor Tian were fussy.
“Looks like it’s two days up the Agate, then another day up the Pebble River tributary. They came a long damn way to die.” Hong muttered.
“All downstream for them. They probably made it in a day of easy rowing.” Tian dusted himself off and made sure his clothes looked tidy. Tian and Hong weren’t wearing their blue robes. The mortals might not recognize the uniform of the Ancient Crane Monastery, but the cultivators certainly did. It provided some conveniences, but it also made moving around discreetly impossible. Everyone, but everyone, gossiped all the time. If "Emissaries from the Mountain” descended on some quiet market town, everyone assumed things were about to get loud in a real hurry.
Not without some justification. The qi was thin, this far from the Mountain. Even the local temples and convents were small places, not a patch on the beauty and grandeur of West Town. If uniformed Ancient Crane Daoists were stirring the muddy waters along the river, they were trolling for something. And smart people didn’t hang around to get caught up in it.
Hong bounced the small sack of spirit crystals in her hand, then made it vanish into her storage ring. “Ready to head out?”
Tian nodded. He kept the map. They had long since divided the chores of travel life between them. Their boat was where they had left it. The Crane had flown off somewhere, but she wouldn’t be far, and would catch up momentarily.
The early afternoon sun was framed by high clouds, a gentle breeze stirring the river shading trees. Dragonflies darted across the calm lake waters, the slap and creak of oars echoing, the dancing breeze carrying shouted greetings and warnings between boats.
Beautiful. Being on the Windblown Manor was beautiful. Being on this boat was beautiful. This world was beautiful. So far from the horror and ugliness of the Wasteland. An illusion that surpassed anything the Five Elements Courtyard could create. One worth preserving.
“Sure I can’t tempt you with a jaunty rowing tune?” He offered, shoving the boat off the pier as Hong got the oar set.
“Sure I can’t interest you in a quick swim?”
“So grumpy. I bet this is why your qi is weird."
“I said I don’t want to talk about that.” Hong grumbled.
“Sure, sure. Suffer in silence. Big Brother can wait.”
“Big? I think you are shrinking! And how can you still not know how to swim?”
“When, between the desert and a literal flying barge, has there been an opportunity to learn? Oh, speaking of learning, let’s stop at a village up ahead. I bet they’ll have more up to date information on the bandits.”
“The past four months on the rivers and lakes doesn’t count as an opportunity?” Liren rolled her eyes so hard, Tian was worried she might tear something.
Bickering, the two teenage immortals set out over the water. Not thinking about anything much. Just enjoying the day, their freedom, and the prospect of making the world a slightly better place. Willfully ignoring the gathering clouds.