Chapter 13 - Finding New Metal
As Mr. Gan looked thoughtfully around their home, Lu Na saw plenty of pieces of scrap metal around, many created as ornamental decorations. It was a long shot that this humble metal worker could find her something that she could use. Yet, Lu Na hoped that there might be something here that she had never thought of before. The outside world was fascinating.
Mr. Gan stopped to pick something up.
“This piece is something I found a while ago, outside of the city when I went looking for metal. Most of the spirits stayed away from it.”
Lu Na picked up the piece of metal and it felt cool to the touch. The longer she held it, the colder it felt.
“Let go of that,” her spirit said. “It’s absorbing what little spirit energy you have inside you.”
Lu Na put it down on the table.
“Did you feel it?” Mr. Gan asked.
“Yes. It was making my fingers colder. How does it do that?” Lu Na said.
“I don’t know. But I’ve had to use gloves to hold on to it. Otherwise, it would have frozen my fingers off.”
Sun Ren picked it up and dropped it immediately, as if it burned her hand.
“This is null metal. It absorbs spirit energy and stores it. It’s also illegal. Anyone seen holding this is subject to imprisonment and hard labor on the wall.”
Mr. Gan was frozen as he stared at the metal. His eyes were wide.
“I didn’t know.”
“Well, I can help you,” Sun Ren said. “Give that piece of metal to Lu Na and she can take it away for you. She’s not a summoner nor is she associated with any sects or groups. The worst they could do is admonish her for having found some shiny metal.”
“Great, you make me sound like a little girl,” Lu Na said.
“Better that than a criminal. Metal workers are not supposed to have this. Did you ask your sifu about this?”
Mr. Gan shook his head.
“I saw it was a shiny metal and thought that I might have been able to forge it into something else of value.”
Sun Ren nodded.
“It is valuable in the right hands. But In others, it’s a death sentence.”
“Then please, take it.” Mr. Gan picked up the piece of null metal and handed it to Lu Na.
“Wait, if it’s so valuable, we can’t hand that over to them,” Mrs. Gan said. “How can we trust these two at their word? They might try to swindle us.”
Sun Ren sighed.
“I hate to do this, but.” Sun Ren took out a wooden badge, inlaid with the word “Marquis,” with metal on it. “As you can see, I’m a representative for my father, Marquis Sun Wentai. If I wanted to, I could have you all arrested and sent to the wall right now.”
At the sight of the badge, the Gan couple kowtowed onto the floor.
“Please, don’t arrest us,” Mr. Gan said. “We are a little people that know nothing.”
Lu Na walked over and raised the couple up.
“No one is going to arrest you. Sun Ren is not the type of person to do that.” Although, as Lu Na said that, she wasn’t exactly sure what type of person her friend was. Sun Ren seemed both compassionate, yet also dangerous simultaneously. How could she be both so easily?
“It would make me a villain to arrest the same people who helped me. But if you were to give this metal to me, you won’t have to worry about being arrested.”
Lu Na thought of many ways to use the metal. She wanted it more than anything, but there was something nagging at her.
“Wait, I can’t just take something from you. Here, take this in exchange.” Lu Na took out her money pouch and placed all she had on the table. “At least this is metal you can use.”
The Gan couple both had eyes larger than the sun.
“We can’t take this,” Mr. Gan said. “This is too much.”
“Consider whatever extra for your help, as well. We are both very grateful you helped us as no one else would.”
“Well, that’s because no one else is as foolish as my husband,” Mrs. Gan said. “Helping people hurts the helpers. No one else wants to get in the middle of whatever is going on outside.”
“Think of it also as payment for allowing us to sleep here tonight. We’re exhausted and we can’t move anymore,” Sun Ren said.
Mr. Gan was still hesitant, but Mrs. Gan hastily swept the money into her own money pouch.
“Of course,” Mrs. Gan said. “Anything you two girls need, please let me know.”
Lu Na could see the conflict on Mr. Gan’s face.
“Don’t worry. You’re giving me a precious metal that I doubt I’ll ever be able to find anywhere else. To me, it’s priceless.”
Mr. Gan nodded.
“Then it’s only fair that you sleep on our cot. It’s not much, but it would be better than the floor.”
“We can share the bed with your daughters,” Sun Ren said.
Lu Na nodded.
As soon as the two ladies sat down on the cot, Lu Na wanted to drift off right away. The day’s fatigue was catching up and she could barely keep her eyes open.
“Wait, don’t sleep yet,” Sun Ren said. “We need a plan in case we get attacked here.”
Lu Na forced her eyes open and stared at Sun Ren.
“I’m so tired. I’d rather they just take us away.”
“Even if it means they will kill you and your family? We don’t know why they attacked your home. We don’t know if they killed your family or kept them prisoner. These people might take you, torture you, and then sell you to a brothel.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
That woke Lu Na up.
“Okay, what are you thinking?”
“Tomorrow. Think you can make some more of your wards and give me some?”
Lu Na hesitated.
“I’m not sure they would work for you. My spirit is usually the one shaping the wards. That’s one thing I’m going to work on when I get back.”
“Don’t worry about it then. If we get attacked here, we have to run south to where my brother is at the Blossom Scent Parlor. If we can get there, we should be safe under his protection.”
Lu Na nodded.
“South to Blossom Scent Parlor, got it.”
“And I need you to promise me that if I tell you to run, you run no matter what. Don’t stay because of me.”
Lu Na nodded again, but this time she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
“Then sleep. I’ll keep watch for a bit. I’ll wake you up if there’s an issue,” Sun Ren said.
Lu Na fell asleep and the night passed without incident. She woke up with Sun Ren propped against her almost like a shield. What did she ever do to deserve someone like her? Other than being her childhood friend, Lu Na didn’t know her. Yet she was happy she had such a friend.
Lu Na shifted Sun Ren into a more comfortable sleeping position.
“Well, good morning. Didn’t expect you to wake up so early,” her spirit said.
“Good morning,” Lu Na whispered. For the first time in a long time, she felt her spirit stirring within her spirit realm. That only happened when they first bonded. “Are you okay?”
“Child, I feel amazing. I haven’t felt this good in ages. If you were a practicing summoner, you would be surprised by the gains I’ve had over the last few days. You might even fear me a little.”
Lu Na gathered her things and walked into the back of the house. There was a large tree there and a small courtyard that was shared among two other houses. A small garden wrapped around the tree, fenced off from predators.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve been feeling good. I’ve been through so much that I doubt even my mother would recognize me now.”
“When your mother told me to bond with you, I didn’t want to at first. But your growth in understanding those inventions has given me such a great boon.”
“Speaking of my mother, you still haven’t told me anything about her or the hairpin she left me. I think now is a good time.” Lu Na sat down on a bench by the garden that had a table. She took out the yellow paper from Uncle Chen’s store and her spirit wand. She needed to replenish her inventory of earth and spirit wards. Maybe she might be able to do something with the null metal.
“I can tell you, but you will not like the answer.”
“Try me. Mother left a few years ago with no warning and I have been lost without her for so long.” Lu Na gathered the earth spirit energy from the ground with her spirit wand and combined it with the yellow piece of paper until it formed her brother’s technique. When it solidified, she wrapped the paper up in a red string.
“Your mother is an outlaw of the spirits. She is trying to uncover the secrets of the Spirit Realm and they’re trying to kill her before she does. No human should have that knowledge.”
Lu Na stopped making the next ward, putting her spirit wand down. The earth spirit energy started fading like drying water, slowly evaporating.
“What do you mean, outlaw of the spirits? Is she dead?”
“I know a lot, but I don’t know everything. But your mother is a powerful summoner. She promised she would give me the power to rule over my little kingdom in the spirit realm. It’s how she convinced me to bond with an inexperienced child like you.”
“No need to move to insults like that.” Lu Na picked up her spirit wand and continued making the ward before the earth spirit energy dispersed entirely. “If she’s so powerful, then where is she? And why did she give me the hairpin?”
“That I can’t tell you. But for the hairpin she told me the secret. She told me that if she wasn’t back before the Mid-Autumn Festival of your sixteenth birth year, that your hairpin would reveal where she was. So if we’re lucky, we will know tonight. Just don’t activate it before then. If you do, it won’t show you where she is and I’ll be stuck with you until you die.”
“Would that be so bad? I’m fond of you, spirit.” Lu Na took off her hairpin and stared at it. “What’s so special about it?”
“First, let me allow you to really see it.”
The plain silver phoenix hairpin glowed red. It looked like the wards she created, except the color and intensity were much lower. Lu Na had to really focus her eyes before she saw the small dots of red around the phoenix’s eyes. She reached toward those dots.
“Don’t touch it.”
“Why not?”
“Because your mother put a powerful ward of her own on the hairpin. It’s meant to protect you should you break the hairpin or activate it. It has the power to burn down the entire city.”
Lu Na placed the hairpin down carefully next to her ward.
“You never thought to tell me that before? There have been a few times when I wanted to break it over the last few days. What if it accidentally fell from my head and broke? Would it have killed my entire family?”
Lu Na’s spirit let out a hissing laugh.
“Child, your mother is no fool. The ward she put on the hairpin can sense your life force. As long as you’re not dying, it won’t activate. Besides Na Na, do you think your mother was that careless in endangering your brother too? She loved him more than the moon.”
“I remember how much she doted on him. I doubt she loved me that much.”
“Na Na, she loved you more than the sun and all the stars in the sky.”
Hearing that from her spirit made Lu Na pause. She missed her mother. She missed her easy laughter and all the amazing things she showed her. Most of all, she missed her hugs and kisses.
“So what will happen if I activate the hairpin?”
“I do not know. She told me two things. One was that it would protect you if you’re ever in grave danger. You can also activate it by tapping the phoenix’s eyes three times. Afterwards, I would direct it like I would any of your other wards to activate. The other thing was that it contained a secret message for you.”
“So can I open it now?” Lu Na picked up the hairpin and looked it all over. This time, little red dots glowed all over the hairpin.
“I wouldn’t suggest it. If you opened it now, it might set off the defensive ward and you might burn down the little mud hut of your host. That handsome and kind blacksmith might be more generous than he should, but I doubt he would overlook you burning down the house.”
Lu Na carefully put it back down, activating none of the wards on it. She didn’t see it before, but knew that if she were to push it in a certain way, it would unlock.
“You’re doing this, aren’t you? It’s your powers that have allowed me to see these things that I’ve never seen before.”
“Of course, child. Your experiences over the last few days have given me enough power to flex a bit of my muscles.”
“So if those men never tried to kidnap me or the Wintersweet never attacked my home, you would never have shown me this?”
Lu Na couldn’t see her spirit, but felt the spirit smirking. That was also something she’d never experienced before.
“I didn’t bond with you because you were worthy of bonding with. Your mother promised me so much. And only now do I see what she meant. Although I wasn’t lying about wanting to take over the world, though.” Her spirit laughed.
“Then this power you’ve given me, is there a cost? Is there something you take from me?”
“What do you mean?”
“My father never taught me much, but there has always been one thing he’s taught every one of his children. Nothing is ever free. Everything has a cost, even if you can’t see it.”
“Your father is very smart. I can’t tell you that either.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to scare you. Not yet anyway. If I get what your mother promised, I will tell you everything.”
“But—”
A large pop sounded outside, followed by three more.
Lu Na saw the fireworks bursting up in the sky. She walked back into the house. That conversation would have to be continued later now that everyone else was woken up by that.
Sun Ren had her sword out, pointed at the door.
“What’s going on?” Lu Na asked.
“I think someone set off fireworks outside. It’s officially the Mid-Autumn Festival today. Someone might start early,” Ting said. The older girl roused her little sister and brought her to the window.
“I recognize those fireworks. It’s trouble. Pack your things.”
They saw a large firework display that resembled a flower.
Both Lu Na and Sun Ren recognized that flower instantly. It was the same flower that was sewn onto those Wintersweet disciples’ clothes and had been chasing them for the last few days.
“Na Na, we have to go,” Sun Ren said.