The two were quiet for the rest of the day. They were used to monastic life, and while the brothers and sisters had certainly never taken a vow of silence, they did spend an awful lot of time meditating. The two juniors had picked up on the habit. Tian was grateful for the quiet. His head was throbbing. Spending the day meditating was boring, but it wasn’t the worst.
Though eventually, Tian felt the need to ask something. “So, just to be clear, you aren’t rich? Because I was sure you were rich.”
“I’m not rich. I’m richer than you, but you are the poorest person in the wasteland. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible. Frankly, nobody believed you could do it. But by heavens you managed to out-broke the heretics.”
“People keep telling me that, and I don’t understand it. I don’t feel poor. Sometimes I don’t have enough money or merits for things, but it’s not that big a deal. Things work out.”
Hong laughed softly. “Your meals are paid for by the sect, your weapon is paid for by the sect out of what you were paid by the sect, for work you did serving the sect, to someone working for the sect, made out of materials gathered by other people in the sect. You live in a temple built by the sect, on land owned by the sect, study scriptures written and collected by the sect, wear a uniform provided by the sect… are you seeing a pattern here?”
“Yes? I am a lay brother of the sect.”
“And how does the sect have all these things to give you?”
“No idea.” Tian shrugged. He had never really wondered. It’s just how things were.
“Do you know what rent and taxes are?”
“Yes, they turn up a lot in the books Brother Fu makes me read.”
“And the giant flying barge whose main function is international commerce, at least according to my sisters?”
“What’s international commerce mean?”
“Trade between countries. But in this case it’s really trading between sects. One of my sisters had a junior that’s now in the Inner Court and works as a clerk. Apparently, the Summer Torrent goes on these crazy long trading loops, like, ten or twenty years or more, picking up absolute oceans of stuff in each place and carrying it around until it finds a place to unload them for a profit. There is a whole factory’s worth of crafters up there, as well as a decent sized herb farm and a whole bunch of other stuff. Like a giant convent that flies around and tries to earn as much as it can for the sect.”
Tian laughed softly. “Hard to imagine. I was on it, and it is hard to imagine.”
“Yeah. It takes a whole lot of money to let you live like a bum.”
Tian got treated the whole thing like a puzzle to pick apart. On the one hand, the sect didn’t treat him as anyone special. Brother Fu did, and Elder Rui did, and Auntie Wu and the brothers, but not the sect as a whole. What he got was the same as what everyone else got, more or less. A bit better because he was in the West Town Outer Court, but that wasn’t about him.
On the other hand, Hong was right. There were mortal servants in the temple. They had to do grain inventories to make sure the mortals were providing everything they were supposed to. That grain came from somewhere.
He silently wrestled with it for a few hours, then shrugged. Hong had settled in to read a book and yelped when Tian spoke out of nowhere. “Too big. I don’t understand it. But I know what the brothers hope for me and expect from me, and that’s going to be enough for now. Everything else, I’ll figure out later.”
“Whatever makes the brothers happy, huh?”
“Yes.”
Hong sighed. “Lucky you.”
They set out the next morning just before dawn. The growing daylight was blinding after so much time in the dark. The compass rings pointed the way back to the depot. Nothing else to do but set off. They traveled an hour away from the rocky ridge they had camped in when they spotted another caravan.
“Do you know what those animals are?”
“No clue. They have four legs like a horse, but other than that…” Hong shrugged. “Looks like they have both cargo and passengers on them though. One person per… whatever that is. And they are moving very slowly too.”
Tian counted about two hundred people in the caravan. They were wrapped up like he was, but their clothes were much looser. Tian narrowed his eyes. “My perception art is still rough- is that woman carrying a baby?”
“She is. And she isn’t the only one. Look, that… whatever it is… has two kids riding on it.” Hong pointed, ignoring the fact that she and Tian were both just thirteen.
“Mortals. There are mortals crossing the waste. There must be cultivators mixed in with the caravan, but it feels different from the merchant caravan.”
“It’s moving a whole lot slower, for one thing.” Hong agreed. “What could they be doing out here?”
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“No idea. But I bet you they are headed for the hidden cavern. At the pace they are going, it will probably take them a few hours to get there, if not most of the day.”
“Makes sense. It would explain all those cubbies for one thing. How are they not getting eaten by everything?” She asked.
“No idea.”
They watched the caravan trudge along. “I don’t think there are cultivators in there. I think it’s all mortals.” Hong said.
“Why?”
“Just a feeling. Look how slow they are moving. A merchant convoy hiring Gu Masters as they leave Black Rock Gorge kind of makes sense. This is a tribe migrating. There is nothing in it for a cultivator, and it would have taken a lot of work to make that space in the hill. You wouldn’t do it for nothing.”
They watched the caravan for a few more minutes, marveling at the dromedaries and the loose fluttering robes of the mortals. A couple of them had even built simple sun awnings and attached them to their saddles, so they could ride in at least some shade. Tian thought that was pretty clever. It would be annoying to carry an umbrella all day, but he saw the appeal. The sun had a way of drilling into you.
“Giant scorpions. Demonized birds. Those little burrowing bugs that pop out of the sand and there are thousands of them and they all have stingers longer than my thumb is wide. Every. Damn. Day. How are they alive?” Tian wasn’t willing to let it go.
“No idea. Maybe it’s because they are mortal? If it worked for cultivators, we would be doing it.”
“That can’t be how it works.”
“Want to go ask them?”
Tian sighed. “No. That is something the brothers taught me. Nothing good comes from mortals mixing with cultivators.”
Hong nodded. They ran off again. Behind them, the tribe made their way through the drifting sands. Carefully, but unafraid. They knew the eyes of God were upon them.
_____________________________________________________________
“See, this is more what I was expecting.” Tian murmured softly.
Three hundred yards of wasteland had been converted into a sort of statuary garden, where all the sculptures were made of sand. They resembled crudely formed humans, half melted then carved away by the wind. Dim red flames danced over them, visible even in the afternoon sun.
“I can’t say it feels comforting,” Hong nodded reluctantly “Even if it seems more like the Redstone Waste I know. Do you hear a faint screaming sound?”
“Yes. And it’s not faint, it’s just very high pitched. We aren’t hearing most of it, but my perception art is picking up the vibrations.”
They watched the flickering flames burning. The still faces of the statues appeared to be in pain.
“Go around?” Hong asked.
“Wide around.” Tian agreed.
“Any idea what that is?”
“None. Very wide around.”
They went.
“It’s usually animals or heretics.” Hong observed.
“Who says this isn’t?”
“Fair.”
They moved wide around the strange collection, which meant they accidentally stumbled on to a group of scorpions moving the opposite way. It turned out nobody wanted to get close to those things. The giant scorpions and the two cultivators had a brief but spirited debate about the dao, and despite their greater numbers, the sweet reason of the West Town Outer Court prevailed.
Not without cost, however.
“Do you have an antidote?” Hong asked. “I’d rather use the sects than my own. The ones Grandma gave are pretty expensive, I think.”
“Yes, scorpion venom antidote is one I have a lot of.” Tian had his own troubles. His protective suit was badly torn. He had patch kits, but they were meant to be patches, not to repair huge rips.
“It is possible I have been looking down on these things after killing so many of them.” Hong muttered. Tian had a strong simultaneous urge to ruthlessly tease her, and to keep his own mouth shut. He had too. He opted to silently hand over the antidote and focus on patching up the suit. He would have to rely on his improved body to manage the infiltrating dust and qi.
He swapped over to Counter-Jumper as a routine precaution while he worked. Nothing worth noticing. He turned back to his patching. Then carefully looked back at the sand and gently laid a hand flat on it. Then laid himself flat on it.
“Brother Tian?”
“Shh.”
There was something. Some incredibly faint vibration, barely identifiable as a pattern. He had to strain the art and focus his entire attention on the nerves in his skin, but he could barely feel something. It might be nothing. But the thing about relying on vibrations through sand was, if you could feel it, whatever “it” was, was close.
“Sister… something is coming.”
“Hmm?” He heard her stand, felt her movement like drum-beats through the sand. “Direction?”
“I’m not sure. Stop moving around.”
She stayed still. Tian spread his arms and legs as wide as he could, trying to get a feel of where the vibrations were coming from.
“There.” Hong said. Tian looked up and followed her finger. He didn’t see anything except the rolling desert and heat shimmers in the dust.
“I don’t see it.”
“There- it’s long, but I can’t make out the shape.”
“Is it coming for us?” Tian shook his head. “Never mind, stupid question. Can we outrun it?”
“No.” Hong stood steady, spear in hand.
They spread out a little bit, Tian with his rope dart spinning slowly, Hong with her spear resting on her shoulder. Tian could make out a blurred shape, closer than he would have liked, and taller. He couldn’t tell what it was at all.
“Anything you can tell me, Sister Hong, would be appreciated.”
“It’s got a low, dense body, covered by what looks like very, very tall hairs. I don’t know how many feet it has, but less than a centipede, more than a scorpion. I can’t really tell anything else.”
Must be her perception art. Tian shook his head.
“It’s bunching its body up- it’s attacking!” Hong yelled.
Tian dashed left, Hong ran to her right. There was a sound like wind through bamboo, and the sand where they had been standing seemed to sprout hundreds of hair-thin needles. Whatever it was got a little more visible. It was maybe ten feet long, taller than Hong, and the long hairs stretched another three or four feet around it.
Nearly invisible, fast, covered in long needles, and it could launch those needles from twenty feet away. Tian swore once he got back to the Depot, he would stop dragging his feet and get a proper ranged weapon. But for now, all there was to do was survive- and win!