Chapter 12 - Sharing Anything We Have

“You had all that underneath your clothes?” Lu Na was shocked to see all those weapons.

“I’m not done yet.” Sun Ren reached down her dark red pants. She took out three daggers hidden in her right leg. They were bent at an angle. That’s when she could finally straighten her leg. “These made walking a little hard. I’m going to have to tell my smiths to make those softer.”

Finally, she went to her other leg and pulled out four other daggers that went from her ankle to her thigh. Sun Ren lined them all up based on size right next to her.

Lu Na was amazed at how many weapons Sun Ren pulled out. There was more metal than Lu Na had ever seen before. They were also highly illegal as no one could have metal weapons such as swords or daggers within the city that weren’t a soldier following an order. Of course, yamen runners were an exception like her brother, but even he only had a small spear tip that was made of metal.

“That’s not normal metal,” Lu Na’s spirit said.

Lu Na picked up a dagger. The edge gleamed a little, almost like how spirit energy looks to Lu Na when she’s about to work with it with her spirit wand. Except that it felt like she was looking at a very sharp edge. Yet when she ran her fingers over it, it didn’t cut her fingers.

“What are these?”

Sun Ren took the dagger from Lu Na to look at the edge herself.

“My Sun family specially made these weapons. They’re coated with a special ink that can cut through low-level spirits. But unless they’re sharpened at the edge, they won’t cut anyone.”

“That’s how you hurt those spirits that attacked us.”

“Yes. They’re also why I have killed none of those disciples yet. I’m not breaking the law if I’m not holding actual weapons.” Sun Ren twirled one dagger in her hand. “Besides, my father would frown upon me using my training to kill people within the city. We’re supposed to protect them, even if they’re low life sect members.”

“Would it be possible to allow me to study this dagger?” The thin coating mesmerized Lu Na.

“You can keep it. Maybe it will help you in the future. Just don’t tell my father. He’s very paranoid about sharing our family secrets.”

“Are you serious? I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble.”

Sun Ren placed her hand on top of Lu Na.

“You’re my friend and after what we’ve been through, I trust you would never betray me. Besides, you would share with me what you found out about it anyway, right?”

Lu Na nodded. What Sun Ren didn’t realize was that at this moment, Lu Na had seen more into these inventions and how the spirits worked than anytime in her life. Sure, she almost died a few times and was constantly running away from would-be kidnappers, but her mind was working in ways she never imagined just a week ago. And now, with this dagger and its thin coating, it has opened up a few more possibilities for her.

“Na Na, what are you thinking about? I can feel your head about to explode the way you’re staring at the dagger,” her spirit said.

“I’m thinking about how I’d use this with Uncle Chen’s technique. If I could combine this dagger’s ability to cut into spirits, I could absorb their spirit energy and convert them into something else. Maybe something better than water.” Lu Na touched the edge of the dagger. It didn’t cut her, but she felt a small buzz coming from it.

“Let’s not do that again,” her spirit said.

“That would be a fascinating invention,” Sun Ren said. “But what would you do with it?”

“We could store the spirit energy for later. A lot of my other inventions use spirit energy, but they’re weak because they can’t pull the spirit energy like actual spirits. But if the invention can pull it from a source, then I could make it as powerful as I can feed it! Can you imagine my brother’s earth wall technique that reaches up to the sky and as wide as a river? Or many other possibilities if only I can learn about them and see how they’re done. We can do so much more.”

Sun Ren smiled.

“You know, my family would have loved to have you work for them. All these ideas you have would make us very strong.”

Lu Na looked up at Sun Ren. She wasn’t sure if her father would allow her to do that.

“I don’t know how useful I would be, though. I can’t do much on my own. If it wasn’t for you and your guards, I would have been kidnapped or killed.”

“Oh, I think you are more useful than you think. You just haven’t found a person who can appreciate you yet.”

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“She’s right. But more importantly, I appreciate you. You promised me that one day, you’d rule the world with me.”

Lu Na chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Sun Ren asked.

“Oh nothing. My spirit reminded me of the silly promise I made to her about one day ruling the world with her. But I hear what you’re saying. If you feel I can be useful to you, it would be the least I could do to repay you for putting your own life on the line for me over the last few days.”

Sun Ren held Lu Na’s hand.

“Then I look forward to working with you. Who knows, maybe with your help, we can bring peace to this country.”

It didn’t take long for the two ladies to clean up. When they were done, Sun Ren had refitted her new tunic with all the daggers and her sword that she had taken from her old tunic. Her limp went away.

“What should we do with our old clothes?” Lu Na asked. Normally, a maid or servant would have taken it away or thrown it out.

“Can we have them?” one of the two girls asked.

“Girls, you can’t ask them for something so expensive,” Mrs. Gan said.

“Ting, right?” Sun Ren asked.

Lu Na couldn’t tell them apart, although they weren’t twins.

The girl nodded.

“You can have them.” Sun Ren passed both the purple dress from Mrs. Hu and her own dark red tunic.

“Thank you!” the girl squealed. Their clothes were torn and no better than rags at that point.

Mrs. Gan bowed with her head.

“Thank you two ladies. That cloth is more expensive than anything we could ever afford and that color is something we’ve only seen the magistrate’s wife wear.”

“That’s where—”

“Enjoy them,” Sun Ren said. “Anyway, tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Is your family doing anything special?”

“Oh, we are,” Mrs. Gan said. “We were working on the moon cakes. Would you two ladies like to join us?”

“Yes, that would be nice,” Lu Na said. She’d had all different kinds of moon cakes from around the country when her father brought them back. But this would be the first time she’d have homemade moon cakes. She always wondered what other people put in their moon cakes.

“Ting and Dang, help me bring the ingredients into the home.” Mrs. Gan and her two daughters brought in three large trays. One of them had flour on it while the other two had different ingredients such as red beans and fruit.

“Sorry, but we have little to offer in our humble home,” Mrs. Gan said.

“No, this is plentiful. This is more than I would usually get during the Mid-Autumn Festival,” Sun Ren said.

“But aren’t you two ladies rich?” Dang asked.

“Well, Lu Na here is rich. Her father has business all over the country with many rich and powerful people. My father gets paid by the government and they don’t pay him enough.”

“Come on, your mother must at least buy you some moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival,” Lu Na said.

“Well, yes, but it’s never ones I like,” Sun Ren said. “But these ingredients look delicious. I love red bean.”

Mrs. Gan placed a small mound of flour in front of Sun Ren.

“Well then, Sun Ren, was it? You can make your own moon cake for tonight. You can put whatever you’d like in it.”

“Thank you.” Sun Ren reached over for the fruit and red beans.

“Why do we have moon cakes, anyway?” Ting asked.

“It’s celebrating the moon and the goddess Chang’e who lives there. Tonight is going to be a full moon and we will see her home glow brightly in the sky,” Mrs. Gan said.

Lu Na stifled a snort. She knew that was the story most people followed, but her father told her something different. He told her it was a scam thought up by the spirits to distract us. That the goddess in the moon is actually a mean spirit that wants us to worship her through moon cakes. Her father was a cynical guy, yet she wondered how he was doing. She was feeling anxious about her whole family actually, especially her brother.

“So, do you know why women and girls have been kidnapped recently?” Mrs. Gan asked.

Sun Ren shook her head.

Mrs. Gan glanced at the different places that Sun Ren had hidden her weapons.

“You seemed like you were a summoner that knew what was going on. I thought you were fighting them.”

“Oh, we were,” Lu Na said. She had made a moon cake out of dried fruits only. “But we still do not know why they’re after us or any of the other women.”

“Then why were you two outside?” Dang asked. “Mother and father told us to stay home.”

“They attacked my home,” Lu Na said. “I was sitting with my friend Sun Ren and we were finishing dinner when they attacked us.”

Mrs. Gan stopped what she was doing.

“Then that means they might come find you here?”

“No, we lost them in the streets,” Lu Na said.

“But they’re still looking for you.”

“Possibly,” Sun Ren said. “If you are worried, we can leave right now. Your family has already been too kind.”

“No one is leaving, especially not to go back outside,” Mr. Gan said as he entered the home. He was covered in soot and sweat. “The streets are deserted and everyone is on high alert. We would be feeding them to the tigers. Since tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, there will be people out celebrating and the magistrate’s yamen runners and constables will be out there, protecting the civilians. It should be safer tomorrow. So for tonight, have dinner with us and you can sleep by the hearth over there.” Mr. Gan pointed at a space to their right.

“We thank you for your generosity, but we don’t want to endanger you or your family,” Sun Ren said.

Lu Na wanted to say something, but Sun Ren was right. If she stayed and somehow those Wintersweet disciples found them, they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt this family. If only she had a weapon of some sort. Then maybe she wouldn’t be so useless in a fight.

“Mr. Gan, would you have something I can use as a weapon?”

Mr. Gan shook his head.

“I’m mostly a blacksmith’s apprentice. I can only make woks.”

The two girls laughed.

“Yeah, Mother is always saying how he’s only good at making trouble,” Ting said.

“But I might have something if you tell me what it is you’re after,” Mr. Gan said. “As long as you don’t expect great quality work.”

Lu Na thought for a moment. She touched the edge of Sun Ren’s dagger again, feeling the buzz.

“Do you have anything that deals with spirits? I’m trying to find a way to store or direct spirit energy.”