The artefact in Anith’s bag had been a replica, of course. She’d made it the previous day in art class.

“But why?” Linua asked, staring at it in bewilderment. “Are you trying to work out what it does?”

They were standing on the pavement outside the restaurant while Sayo Hui and Linua waited for their cars.

“No.” Anith flushed from the roots of her hair right down to her neck. Linua had never seen her that colour. “I was going to put it in the artefacts room, in a wrong drawer somewhere, and arrange for it to be discovered. So that everyone would think it had never been stolen in the first place.”

Linua inspected the artefact again.

“It’s not finished anyway.” Anith held her hand out for it, and after a moment Linua gave it back. “I need to use some aging techniques on it.”

Linua didn’t know what to say. She looked up at Eret. He didn’t look any happier than she felt.

“That would have been … covering up a crime,” she said.

Anith took a deep breath.

“You keep doing stupid things. Both of you! You went to talk to that Bead guy about it and next thing both our houses are getting broken into, and Linua actually gets attacked. When are you going to understand that this is dangerous and you should leave it alone? Did you forget what we said the last time? What happened to never, ever again?” She was panting a little by the end of this. “And anyway, it wouldn’t have been wrong because I would have told Dad about it. He could speak to the trustees and they could decide what they want to do about it. It’s not up to us!”

Sayo Hui had been watching in fascination, but now her face went thoughtful. She pulled Anith into a hug, as if Anith was a child in need of comfort, which looked a little odd since Sayo Hui was shorter in height.

“Hey, sister,” she said. “I don’t know what all this about, but you trying to take care of Little Brother and Little Sister. You did well.”

Eret jerked at that.

“Did you just call me … I’m older!” he protested.

Anith raised her head from Sayo Hui’s shoulder.

“Well maybe you should act like it!”

Linua’s finger flew to Eret’s lips in warning. She knew that anything he would say at this stage would just make everything worse. Also, he needed to give Anith a lift home, so it would be better if they didn’t argue.

“Anith, we haven’t done anything since then. Honestly.”

Anith sighed and Sayo Hui released her.

“Yeah, okay, I know. But Pickle and Solly have been driving me nuts. Did you hear that telephone call they made?”

Linua winced.

“I feel like someone should call that poor guy and apologise,” Anith went on.

“If we’re not allowed to do anything then you aren’t either,” Eret said firmly. “For all you know Horn was the thief. Or the murderer. Or both.”

Sayo Hui’s eyebrows peaked at this.

“Yes, okay.” Anith looked calmer now. “Although the break ins happened right after you went to see Bead. Solly didn’t speak to Horn until after that.”

“True.” Eret nodded.

Linua realised something.

“Wait. Pickle first put the artefact up on an archaeology bulletin board. Horn could have seen it there.”

They thought about this.

“It’s possible,” Eret said eventually. “But given that the break in happened so quickly after we went to see Bead I reckon it has to be him. Plus, he disappeared afterwards. How much more suspicious can you get?”

Sayo Hui stared at them all with wide eyes.

“What fascinating lives you lead. I had no idea!”

When Linua got in, Helged was just coming off the phone.

“Linua, lovey!” she said, when she saw Linua come in. “That was DC Sipps! There’s been another break in.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Linua halted on the threshold, suddenly alarmed. Was it Eret’s house?

“Where?”

“Nobody we know, duckie. The thief broke into their house, and started going through their computer. They woke up called the police right away, and he ran. The description they gave matches the man you saw. The police think he’s a normal burglar, looking for financial information, maybe, or passwords or something. I don’t quite understand these things.”

Although the police now thought that the man was an ordinary burglar who was unrelated to the missing artefact, and not some accomplice of Bead’s, the round-the-clock protection didn’t immediately let up. Linua woke the next day to find two Yi retainers still prowling both inside and outside the house.

Today, she had been asked to return to the dojo—not to participate in the training, as her ribs weren’t healed just yet, but so that she could be there for Sayo Hui’s formal leave-taking of the children’s dojo. Sayo Hui was sixteen, and would be moving to train with the adults.

Sayo Hui accosted her on the way to the dojo from the changing rooms.

“Little Sister!”

Linua slowed down to let her catch up.

“Does Great-Grandfather know about Eret?”

“Um. I don’t think so? Zhong Ren heard me tell the police about him, but I didn’t even say he was my boyfriend or anything!”

Sayo Hui made an impatient sound.

“If Zhong Ren knows then Great-Grandfather knows. You need to ask permission from Great-Grandfather to see Eret.”

Linua felt her insides turn squirmy with embarrassment.

“Do I have to? But what if he says no?”

Sayo Hui stared at her, gnawing her lip in thought.

“That’s what being a Yi means. But if you don’t tell him it’s going to be no anyway. At least if you ask, it might be yes.”

“Um.” Linua had spoken to Great-Grandfather Yi precisely once in her life, when she had first been brought to Herkow and introduced to him. The prospect of marching up to the head of the Yi family and telling him that she wanted to have a boyfriend was far too horrifying a prospect even to think about. Why did the Yi family have to be so stuffy? Eret hadn’t had to ask his dad for permission to go out with Linua. “Do I really have to speak to him?”

“Well, someone, anyway,” Sayo Hui hedged. “Maybe my mum or something.”

Sayo Hui’s mother—Auntie An Pai—was nearly as terrifying as Great-Grandfather Yi.

“Uh. Okay,” Linua said.

They went into the dojo together, which had various aunties and uncles lining the walls.

Wai Bing stood in his usual place before the Yi cousins as they bowed to signal the start of their session. Standing behind him stood a short, unassuming figure Linua recognised—it was Venerable Uncle Tai Wu, the only ascended member of the Yi family.

Following Sayo Hui’s demonstration, Wai Bing told them, the Venerable Tai Wu would speak to them, and they were to listen carefully to his wisdom. If Sayo Hui was alarmed at the prospect of doing a solo demonstration for Uncle Tai Wu, it didn’t show on her face. She performed the sequence in her usual flawless manner.

“You have worked hard, Wai Ren’s Daughter,” Tai Wu said, when she had finished. Sayo Hui said nothing in reply, merely bowed in acknowledgement.

Next was the graduation ceremony, in which Sayo Hui received a scroll tied with a blue ribbon while her mother stood to one side and smugly accepted congratulations from the other aunties and uncles. Once this had been completed, Wai Bing turned to Tai Wu, bowed deeply, and asked him to address the class.

Perhaps Wai Bing had expected Tai Wu to deliver a lecture of some kind, but all Tai Wu did was say mildly, “Who wants to ask me a question?”

No-one wanted to go first, but after one of the aunties had been gesturing continuously at Cousin [x] for several seconds, he reluctantly raised his hand.

“Venerable Uncle, how do you serve the House of Yi?” he asked quickly. His mother gave him a silent little clap and beamed proudly.

“I uphold the honour of our House,” Tai Wu said. “If we must be strong, then I represent our strength. If we must be courteous, then I act with courtesy. If we must be kind ...” he paused and then smiled, a little sadly. “… then I offer mercy.”

A couple of hands had appeared now, and Tai Wu nodded at one of them.

“Venerable Uncle, what advice can you give us when we practice wushu?”

“First, you must listen to your shifu,” Tai Wu replied. “Listen to the knowledge of your elders, learn what they have to teach you. Second, you must listen to the rivers of Qi. At this stage you will not be able to hear them, but know that they are there, and they will tell you things, even when it appears they are silent. Third, never stop seeking truth. I have lived for many years, but still there are things I can learn, things I do not know.”

One by one, encouraged by their parents standing on the side-lines, the cousins asked Tai Wu questions that were entirely proper and correct, and had obviously been prepared beforehand.

Linua hadn’t had any parents to give her an appropriate question for her to ask. Her parents were lost at the other side of the solar system. There was no-one to stand at the edge of the dojo and make silent little clapping motions when she asked something that had been pre-approved. She felt a rush of loss, rage and resentment that churned inside her with nowhere to go. All she could do was sit there with a politely attentive look on her face and feel excluded once again.

Eventually all the cousins had asked a question except for Linua.

“Tai Geng’s Daughter,” Tai Wu kind voice asked, abruptly bringing her thoughts back to the session. “Do you have a question for me?”

Linua’s had not expected to be picked out, and had nothing appropriate to ask. She panicked for a moment, but then her mind flashed to her conversation the other day with Sayo Hui. The things Sayo Hui had said swirled around in her mind [with] her own situation, that feeling of being trapped with no way out.

“Do you ever wonder what it would have been like if you hadn’t ascended?” she asked, before she could think.

There was a horrible, frozen silence throughout the dojo.

Wai Bing opened his mouth and drew a breath but was forestalled when Uncle Tai Wu held up his hand and spoke.

“I have, upon occasion, considered what my life would be like without such a gift.” Uncle Tai Wu paused and looked around the dojo. His eyes creased in a mischievous smile. “How can one not consider such a thing? All I can say that it would be very different. Yet such thoughts are an indulgence. To dwell up on them would be to succumb to a weakness of spirit. The wisdom of our ancestors teaches us not to covet the path not taken. What is, is, and what will be, will be. The first step is to face a truth, to acknowledge it. The second step is to accept that truth. The third step is to embrace it.”

He stood up, signalling the end of the questions, bowed to them all, and ambled out. Immediately several hushed conversations broke out, and Linua looked up to find Wai Bing standing over her.