Our mates from that evening were… well, I’ll just say they were glad we weren’t worried about them taking us in and being fathers to our children. Actually, mine turned out to already have a mate, and she was rather less than pleased to receive the news. I tried to apologize about that, but she was pretty insensate with anger. So I just told the man to take his lumps and advised the woman not to kill him near their home.

I thought I heard her mutter something about knowing how to hide a body, thanks… but this damn turban and having my ears tucked in leaves me half-deaf.

Mistress finished her own shopping, assuring we had all our supplies loaded onto a couple of wagons at the edge of town. I recognized the Adepts who’d be driving them back, and waved them farewell as we started ahead.

After we’d re-entered the mountains and the two of us could drop human guises, Mistress talked.

“So… not only have I had children, but I was actually married once. Handsome boy, around my own age, not a cultivator but I didn’t care at the time. Thought I’d have plenty of time to change his mind. That’s how it is when humans are young, we think everything will go our way.

“I was twenty-one, and already one of the strongest cultivators in the world when I first noticed I was having trouble drawing qi in properly. The two of you might have noticed, but cultivation is usually a male profession.”

I nodded. There were women at the monastery besides the three of us, but not many.

“So it was only when Fu mentioned she’d noticed the same issues just a few months before that I realized what was happening to me. She’s the reason I know about that whole ‘shape-lock on conception’ issue, and was already visibly pregnant with her firstborn at the time.”

Kaoru nodded this time. Mistress just shook her head at old memories.

“She’s always been luckier in love. Her husband was the whole reason she started cultivating in the first place, and the first thing she did when she could finally change to a humanoid form was lock herself in a room with him for a month. With the way cultivation affects fertility, they were far past the point of no return by then. Which was fine by her, and to this day she’s almost always pregnant.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Me… well, I loved the boy I was dating. Wouldn’t have slept with him if I didn’t. But… looking back, I don’t think he was quite as enthusiastic as I was to be starting a family. He married me, sure, but more out of social obligation than love.”

“Doesn’t sound like a smart plan to me, but maybe that’s an animal thing.”

“No Xiang, marrying someone you don’t love often causes more problems than it solves. But it didn’t matter in the end.”

Mistress sat on a stump, a dark and bitter look in her eyes.

“My husband… and I can’t even remember his name anymore, let alone his face. But he was the heir to a kingdom that once ruled over much of this region. As scared and impressed as the two of you were with Rivermill, believe me when I say it’s insignificant compared to the wider world. And when the Tortoise King decided this would be part of his territory, well…”

Oh.

“So he was murdered?”

“Him, our infant son, and nearly myself. I still bear the scars. It was the first time I was ever so throroughly outmatched in a fight, and if Fu hadn’t been in the area to save me, I’d be quite dead. As-is, when the Tortoise King found the monastery we live in… well, all my other children were by him. And he didn’t leave me a choice.”

A crack sounded through the air. I didn’t hit anything with the punch, but apparently I broke the air around where my fist had been. Odd.

Mistress smiled. “They’re all dead now too. None had much gift for cultivation, so they all died of old age a long time ago. I visit their graves sometimes, keep track of my descendants. Li’s probably the most promising of the bunch I’ve ever known.”

I blinked in surprise.

“Yes, your favorite punching bag is… oh, I don’t know how many generations removed, but a grandson. He doesn’t know, and would probably get more out of knowing he’s a descendant of a Heavenly Emperor than the middle-aged harridan who never much liked him in all the time she’s been teaching him cultivation. But he’s starting to develop a sense of compassion, and I thank you for being the one to pound that into him, Xiang. You have no idea how painful it is to watch everyone you could have loved turn out to be a monster.”

The mood was dark, so I could only be grateful that we were faster getting home than we were leaving it. Some things are just left buried.