Tian didn’t watch the others cross. He sat on the ground, casually crossing his legs under him and cradling the pinecone. He felt an immense quiet, and like the null chamber in the Six Turns Cavern, it forced him to confront himself.
“I have spent so long worrying about excess yin, without asking myself why I should care. Yes, balance is needed for health, and right now, I have a medically insufficient flow of yang, but… so what? Once it is healed, once I am back to normal, should I keep struggling for more yang natural treasures? Would that bring me even one step closer to immortality?
No. No it would not. Immortality comes through accumulation and revelation. Strengthening my yang would strengthen my foundation, worthwhile for sure, but that’s it. And that’s not enough to drive me. So what is it that made me obsess over it for years now?
My brothers are the first thing that comes to mind. They were all I really could compare myself to. Tall, thickly muscled, laughing loudly and moving boldly across open spaces while I crouched in shadows and silently watched. I learned how to use a rope dart, because I could use it to hunt, to rig a tent, to run away. To grab things that my hands couldn’t hold. A hidden weapon, for a hiding boy.
I know there are Sisters interested in me romantically. I pretend not to see, smile and stay polite. Running from their feelings, and running from their dislike of me when I tell them I’m not interested. I have been cruel to Daoist Shu. I was unwilling to bear the pain of her disappointment and dislike, so instead I have caused her a greater pain. One I can no longer fix, or even mitigate.
Running away from an honest conversation with Dad, because I am afraid of losing him, and losing what we have. What he means to me. Running away from my name, any of my names. Running and hiding from the Dead Boy, and his birth family, and the weight of all this expectation. Hiding in my little cave or on my boat with my good sister.
Hiding from… from…”
Tian felt himself teetering on the edge of a truth he was hiding from himself. The fall was terrifying.
“Hiding from what I feel for Liren. Whatever it is. And hiding from what she feels for me. Whatever that is. I… haven’t been paying attention to her properly. Not like I should be. Not like someone part of… whatever we are. Dad had a name for it.
Dao companions. I wonder what those words will mean for us. I won’t rush it, though. This is worth experiencing properly, thinking about properly, caring about properly. So long as I don’t hesitate. So long as I have the courage to step into the flow.”
Then, seemingly irrelevantly, a thought intruded.
“I wonder if Liren likes short men? She’s never said anything about that, either.”
Tian gently touched his heart. For the first time in months, it felt warm.
Liren was the last to cross the river. She had been stuck on the river bank, staring at Tian’s back as he meditated. She had seen how he did it, but doing it was an altogether different problem. When she came out of the river, she was shaking but smiling. Tian met her with a smile of his own, which stopped her dead on the riverbank.
“What… what are you smiling about?”
“Sister was afraid she wasn’t yin enough. Now she knows she is. Why wouldn’t I be happy?”
Liren rubbed the back of her neck. “I am, am I? I guess that makes you yang enough.”
“Nah.”
“Eh?”
“I really do need more yang in me, but I will always be a bit more yin than others. No idea why. Maybe I will figure it out on this trip. Is that something you can accept?”
Liren was finding the surrounding forest fascinating, as she kept looking everywhere but at Tian. “I never minded that at all. Not even once.”
“Not even once?” Tian asked.
“Well. Maybe once.”
“Possibly twice?”
“It could be as many as three times, though I doubt it could be more than four.” She admitted. Tian grinned.
“I’ll just have to improve. Look at what I got.” He showed her the pinecone.
“I saw that! It just fell in your hand. Are there more pinecones up there?”
“Not that I can see. Do you see anything?”
“No. It must be a reward for the first to cross the river. Did you notice the trees are different on this side of the river?” Liren asked. “Still made of stone, but now they are pines and firs.”
“I hadn’t.” Tian shook his head and looked around. The air was cooler on this side of the river. The thin needles swayed and brushed against each other, the sound a peculiar mix of whispering wind, clattering stone, and almost metallic chiming. He hunted for the source of the sound, and found a tree with long needles. Even a light breeze was enough to make them sway and dance, and they brushed against each other almost constantly.
Individually, the sounds of each needle were almost unnoticeable, but when a whole tree rang, it made the music of the forest come alive. Immortal trees made of stone, but still scattering seeds. Still swaying to the breath of the dao. Liren came and stood next to Tian, letting the music dance around them, wrapping them up in a song of an eternal life.
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It was an immortal moment; Tian and Liren lived an eternity in an instant, standing on the riverbank, washed in the magic of the world.
There was a crunching noise behind them. “Husband, more.”
Tian looked back. Sister Su was dipping her hand into a bag of fried breadsticks held by Brother Wang. Sis Lin was munching her own breadstick. The three of them were looking at him. Well, him and Liren.
“Ah, youth.” Brother Wang sighed.
“Indeed. Youth.” Lin nodded.
Sister Su didn’t comment. She ate another breadstick instead.
“Aren’t you only ten years older than me or something?” Tian asked.
“In years, yes. In experience?” Brother Wang shook his head with immense benevolence. “Ah well. Shall we move on?”
“Mmm. But we must decide how to divide up the pinecone. I don’t know how many seeds are in it-” Tian started but was waved down by everyone.
“It’s yours.”
“Yours.”
“Fateful encounter, I won’t touch it.” Sister Lin sounded particularly vehement.
Tian looked over at Liren, who gave him a very ‘patient’ smile back. Tian sighed and put away the pinecone, silently fixing the moment in his memories. He would make certain this generosity was repaid.
“Let’s move on, then. We can always come back and enjoy the music another time.”
Wang and Su shared a look and a smile. “Ah, but youth comes only once-”
“Brother Wang, I have just started learning the basics of acupuncture. I’m not very good, but you are quite sturdy. How about you volunteer to be my practice dummy? The wax mannequin always looks like it is screaming. I would benefit from seeing your smiling face.”
“But then, youth should not be wasted on frivolous pursuits. Off we go, off we go.” Brother Wang boldly strode off into the bushes.
“The path is this way, Brother Test Animal. I mean Brother Wang. Ah ha ha ha.” Sister Liren pointed with her spear.
“Such robust, hot blooded youths.” Brother Wang quickly reversed course and made for the path. There was a three sided feminine look exchange, a mutual snigger, then they walked off as well, leaving Tian to catch up.
He looked up, trying to find the blue sky between the stone trees.
“Sometimes, it’s a burden, being the sensible one.”
The path continued through the pine forest for a few hundred yards before reaching a stone gate. The gate was wide, a double door design. One side had a little basin full of water, the other a basin full of fire. Both basins were jutting from the gate chest high, like they were afraid someone might, somehow, miss seeing them.
The group looked at each other for a moment, then back at the gate.
“Is it… testing if we are smart enough to just go around?” Wang asked. It was a reasonable question. The gate was austere and impressive, but lacking the usual wall to be mounted in. The woods on either side of the gate continued unbroken.
“Yes. You go first this time.” Liren agreed.
Brother Wang didn’t move for a minute, then scooped a stone off the ground and gently threw it to the left of the gate. It reached the side of the gate, then froze in mid air. There was a crackling noise. Tian had never heard the sound of ice breaking underfoot, which is a shame because it might have given him a hint as to why the rock shattered into a large number of small pieces.
“Ah. A moron filter.” Lin radiated sage wisdom. “We just demonstrated that it only takes one person figuring out the trick to the river for a whole bunch of people to cross. As long as they have strong minds and good self control, it’s easy enough. But now the ambitious but incapable want a chance to show off. So they demonstrate the ‘easy’ solution, presumably while yelling something insulting about seeing the losers at the finish line.”
There was a round of slow nods to that. “Sister Lin sounds as though she speaks from personal experience.” Liren probed.
“We are a very big family. Lots and lots of joint activities, all of which are secretly, or not so secretly, evaluated by the elders and used to determine the kinds of resources and support you can receive in the future. I’ve never been in a testing ground like this before, but it is feeling increasingly familiar.” Lin’s voice would have sounded bitter saying all that back on Windblown Manor. Now she just sounded wry.
“Oh? We should speak about that sometime.” Wang’s cheek twitched in what might otherwise have been a grin, but his eyes were fixed on the scattered pebbles. “Any ideas about how to defeat this gate?”
“Mmm. Well, it’s still not set up to test people individually, so I’m guessing that the trial ground is still at the ‘weeding out the masses’ stage. So I’d bet it’s something that takes teamwork, and brainwork.”
That got a more enthusiastic round of nods. Lin straightened her face. Tian thought she looked like she was hiding how pleased she was that everyone was listening to her. She must have enjoyed teaching the princes and princesses.
“Continuing on the rules from the first barrier, let’s assume that there isn’t some secret hidden in the environment. Nor is there any specialized skill needed to pass. The clues should be present just by examining the gate. The gate is stone, carrying fire and water. We should test the gate and confirm that it is, in fact, sealed, but other than that, we can deduce that the test requires manipulating the elements present here.”
“Presumably one person controls each element, while the rest open the gates.” Sister Su narrowed her eyes, tapping her thumb against her knuckles as though she were calculating something.
“Could it be as simple as applying fire and water to the respective elements? Could this be something solvable with a canteen and a portable ember?” Brother Wang wondered.
“Could be, but it does violate the rule that ‘you don’t need to bring things from outside to solve the challenges’ we have assumed. There has been an almost total absence of both fire and water so far in this testing ground. The river is magic snakes, the trees are stone, and other than Brother Zihao’s monkey, there hasn’t been any non-explosive fire. Unless they expect us to go collect a snake from the river and walk it over here?” Liren shook her head.
Tian heard a change in the music of the forest. He started looking upward at the trees, trying to see what was causing it.
“Brother Zihao?” Liren looked over sharply. Tian didn’t answer her, staring into the trees. Sister Su started to say something, but quieted down when Liren raised her hand.
“This sort of change… I don’t recognize it, because the forest sounds different to all the forests I have ever been in, but there is something familiar about it. Something that’s banging a gong inside of me and telling me to run or fight.”
Tian kept his eyes moving. The change was coming through a wide area of the forest, and moving quite quickly.
“It seems we won’t need to bring water or fire, Brother Wang.” Tian’s rope dart slithered out of his sleeve and into his hand.
“Oh?” Brother Wang pulled out his shield and hammer. The others armed themselves no less quickly.
“Yes. Monkeys in this forest have fire and blood. The whole troop is coming, likely several hundred of them. We will fight them with the gate at our back. Any extra preparations you can make, do so, because retreat isn’t going to be an option.”