Small pink toes twitching,
Eyes yet closed to the new world,
A breath, calm and deep.
Chi Yincang swept his brush over thin rice paper, then stared down at the words. Somehow, they didn’t quite capture the perfect innocence of the tiny new lives nestled beside their mother in the next room. It was truly a fascinating thing. He felt nothing at taking lives when needed, but these helpless creatures made his heart pound in his chest. Drawing his brush over his ink-stone, he tried again.
Little bodies curl,
Underneath their mother’s gaze,
Whiskers brush-
The ground shuddered, causing Chi Yincang’s hand to slip, tracing a false line from the corner of the rune. His moment of introspection shattered, he smoothly tucked the brush, paper, and ink into his pouch, then vanished into shadow as the front door shook. Someone was attempting entry, but if Chi Yincang knew Li-xiao and Yingying, he need not worry they would succeed. Instead, he turned to the miniscule room where Mei and her offspring slept.
Unsurprisingly, Mei’s eyes were open, and she stood even as her pups nuzzled at her belly. Staring up at him, she squeaked inquiringly, and he knelt beside her, offering a tiny bit of cheese. Foods with milk in them were good for new mothers, or so he had heard.
“We must relocate your young,” he told the rodent. “Will you trust me to aid you?”
In the other room, the door cracked as the stone beneath the hut shook again. Soon enough, this small, poorly made house might well come down without the assistance of whoever had come so unwelcome to the door.
Mei glanced behind him, then at the hole she had gnawed in the wall. It was a good plan, and he felt a warm rush of pride that she had thought so far ahead. One should never allow oneself to be trapped. Unfortunately, her babes were no longer in her belly, and thus it would take far too long to secure their safety. Holding out his hand, Chi Yincang waited. For now, he had time to ask, and so he would.
He was hidden in shadow, but Mei, like Li-xiao, Yingying, and now Kaz and the dragon, Li, always seemed to know where he was. It was occasionally disconcerting to find that so many could break through his Dao, but such was the path of growth. In cultivating greater skill, he would also cultivate power.
Without further hesitation, Mei lifted a squealing pup and deposited it in Chi Yincang’s palm. He could feel its tender warmth against his skin, and see the pale flush of milk in its swollen belly. It was unhappy at being separated from its mother, but when its four siblings were added to the wriggling pile they all quieted. Not content, but closer.
“They will be well,” Chi Yincang promised as Mei ran up his arm and settled into place on his shoulder. Standing, he summoned Jinmao from his ring. Fighting with only one hand would be a good challenge.
Whiskers twitch in sleep,
Safe from harm within my hand,
A promise kept still.
Yes. It was different from his previous poems, but different could be good as well. Perhaps those who read it would be driven to ponder what might have led to that change, and see a reflection in their own lives.
Jinmao spun, cutting away the wall with almost contemptuous ease. The kobolds were to be commended for their attempts at creating a house in which their guests might be comfortable, but they had only the fallen blocks of ancient buildings with which to work, and it yet left something to be desired.
Chi Yincang turned, leaping backwards from the building even as he sketched a rune in the air with the tip of Jinmao’s blade. Runes were Li-xiao’s image, not his, but she had given this one to him long ago. It was only there to trigger Yingying’s…
If he hadn’t already been in the air, the explosion might have caused him to lose his footing. Chi Yincang knew his sister well, however, and had been prepared for what some might have considered an overly enthusiastic response to the intruders breaking through the door. Howls of pain rose as the remains of the small building fell in on itself.
On Chi Yincang’s chest, a spot of warmth began to grow, and he cradled the babes to him as he leaped from one building to the next. Some of these buildings had been pillaged to create the smaller ones the kobolds preferred, but others remained two or even three stories tall, and Chi Yincang used these as a high road, heading for the portal leading from the mountain. Elder Long was there, with Lady Baihe. They had chosen to remain in Elder Long’s extremely comfortable tent rather than face one of the small guest houses, and Elder Long had used his study of the portal as a polite excuse.
Mei turned her head, her tail wrapping around Chi Yincang’s throat as she looked behind them. She squeaked unhappily, but Chi Yincang didn’t look back. He would face his enemies when the time came, but for now, Elder Long had called.
The city flew by beneath his feet, and Chi Yincang caught glimpses of kobolds running through what passed for streets. Here and there, gray-furred kobolds faced off against ones with more colorful fur, though Chi Yincang noticed a pattern in who fought, and who ran. He filed that away to tell Elder Long or Li-xiao when he had a chance.
The heat against his chest had reached a worrisome level, and Chi Yincang began to leap over whole buildings. It drew more of his ki, but such was the price a servant paid when he was too far from his master to easily return when called. “Hold on,” he murmured, and felt Mei’s claws dig in as he pushed off with a Shadow Leap, soaring up into a particularly dense patch of darkness that enshrouded and carried him toward his destination.
He dropped out of it into the brightly lit area around Elder and Lady Long’s tent. It was more difficult to remain hidden here, but if a Shadow Master could not carry his own darkness, how could he call himself a Master? There was little need, though, because the whole area was a mass of claws, fur, teeth, and bolts of power that he might have laughed at only a few months before, but now recognized as signs of great strength in adversity.
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Chi Yincang’s feet touched stone beside the arch that now contained a permanent portal out of the mountain. Kneeling, he tenderly placed the five wriggling pups on the cold stone. He hated to do it, but there was desire and then there was duty, and Chi Yincang knew which he must obey.
“Can you get them outside?” he asked, and Mei gave him a look that nearly made him smile. The fuergar would do as she must, and so would he. As Chi Yincang straightened, Mei already had two pups clutched in her mouth and was disappearing through the portal.
Turning to the battle, Chi Yincang saw that most of the assailants had the same gray fur as the ones in the streets, though there were a few brown mingled among them, as well. Those fighting back were almost all some shade of red, blue, or white, though occasionally a black or gray-furred female would appear from air that shimmered like reflective water, stabbing an attacking kobold in the back before withdrawing again.
The tent still stood, which was not unexpected, since it was made of fuulong silk. It would take more than a few weak kobolds to tear it down, or even force out its occupants. Unfortunately, it appeared that the Elder and his wife had not been in the tent at the time of the attack, and Lady Baihe now stood alone, her body moving through the motions of the Greeting of the Sun, which she had been too ill to perform in many years. Her form remained perfect, sweeping away all attacks, but it was defensive, not offensive. The enormous pool of blood spreading at her feet had to have been caused by Elder Long. But where was he?
Keeping one eye on Lady Baihe, and the other on Mei’s pups - there was only one left now, since she had come back for two more - Chi Yincang pulled out the amulets that hung around his neck. Two told him Lianhua and Yingtao were well and moving toward him, but the third… Elder Long did not respond to the questing power that reached out to his matching amulet. He was moving rapidly away, and Chi Yincang was certain he would not have left his lady behind voluntarily. What could possibly have happened?
Sinking deeper into shadow, Chi Yincang opened the bond to his master wide. Usually, only general feelings of good or ill passed between them, other than the brief time Chi Yincang spent each day communing directly with Elder Long. Chi Yincang’s body could not contain his master’s power, so opening himself to this extent was dangerous, but necessary.
Rather than the swarming kobolds and gracefully dancing lady, Chi Yincang’s eyes showed him parts of furry bodies bounding ahead of him. As always, the colors were touched by the Dao of Shadow, rendering them darker than usual, but it was clear that fur was yellow or gold, not gray or brown. As he had guessed from the lack of Goldblades fighting alongside the other kobolds, Idla’s tribe had turned on them. They weren’t battling their fellow kobolds directly, not yet, but there was no doubt that they had taken Elder Long. And from the echoed pain in Chi Yincang’s dantians, he could guess how they’d done it. But how did primitive beings living in isolation know about gu?
He was yanked back to his true surroundings as he coughed up a single mouthful of blood. Opening himself to the bond so deeply also left him open to anything that afflicted his master. Chi Yincang wasn’t truly poisoned, but his body didn’t know that, and he spat out another mouthful of blood as he heard a familiar voice call his name.
“Chi Yincang!” Lianhua shouted, eyes unerringly coming to rest on him. He leaped up, landing several feet closer to her, and Jinmao struck out, shrieking in his mind as it finally tasted the blood for which it longed. A headless gray-furred body stumbled forward a step, not yet aware it was dead, and Chi Yincang bowed even as the spear swept to the side, killing another kobold as it lunged toward Yingtao. Not that his sister needed protection from such a minor threat, but Jinmao had waited long enough.
“Where’s Grandfather?” Lianhua demanded, sending one of her ki-arrows into the throat of another kobold.
Chi Yincang pointed with Jinmao, before turning the motion into a spinning attack that slew half a dozen more of the apparently mad kobolds. He watched as Lianhua ran toward Lady Baihe, who continued the impossibly graceful flow of her movements for several more steps, a seemingly gentle push of her palms against the air throwing several kobolds backwards several feet. She was caught in the kata, and stopping it too soon could interrupt her ki-cycle, causing her to lose what she had gained from the dance.
At last, the lady drew her Greeting to a close, one foot hovering in the air as her arms lifted. Then she settled both feet on the ground and stumbled forward, her expression shifting from peace to desperate worry in a heartbeat.
“Chief Idla came to share a meal with us,” she said quickly, grasping Lianhua’s arm with her hands as Chi Yincang and Yingtao continued to keep the area clear of attackers. They were becoming fewer now, and the kobolds who had been fighting to defend Lady Baihe were able to gather themselves into small groups. The males protected females from physical assault, while the females sent ki-bolts into their enemies until their power was drained, then fell back behind the line of males.
“I wasn’t hungry, but I didn’t want to be impolite, so I put my food into storage, but Yufei ate his. It must have been poisoned, because he began to cough up blood, and then a large number of strange kobolds flooded in, attempting to carry us away. Yufei told me to perform the Greeting of the Sun, and then he began to fight. The poison must have crippled his ki, at least temporarily, and eventually, they were able to overwhelm him. I couldn’t stop-” Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and she looked almost as tired as she had just before she was confined to bed. She was recovering well, but she had very nearly died, and she had never been a fighter.
Lianhua embraced her grandmother, holding the older woman fiercely. “It’s my fault, Grandmother. We knew Nucai was still here, manipulating these people, and that he had to have some way of subduing powerful humans. After all, how else did they manage to capture enough of them to create all the races of kobolds?”
The gray kobolds were pulling back now, though the ground still shuddered occasionally. This was far from over, but now they had a moment to think. Yingying put away her knives, making them vanish into the matching storage pouches he’d gotten for her along with her first set of blades.
“Do you still have the food?” she asked Lady Baihe, failing even to bow before speaking. Truly, his sister was growing into her position as Lady Lianhua’s partner.
The lady’s expression brightened, and she opened her pouch, allowing a small pile of food to fall to the floor. None of them attempted to catch it. They were all knowledgeable enough about poisons to be aware that one did not simply touch anything that might be contaminated.
Kneeling, Yingtao pulled tiny bottles from her sleeves, dropping liquids and an occasional powder onto the brightly colored mushrooms. Most of them did nothing, though a few sizzled or popped, and finally she sat back, shaking her head. “A gu, certainly. It’s too powerful to be anything else. I suspect it was made using reagents found in this mountain, since I don’t recognize it.” She looked up at Baihe. “They were taking no chances. If someone without a core ate this, it would certainly kill them.”
Lianhua paled and clutched at her grandmother. Lady Baihe should be in Early Core Formation now that she could continue upon the path to ascension, but Core Formation was not a core. Even Elder Long had only just acquired his final form of ki and stepped foot into Golden Core in the last few days, since the risk of delaying any further was too high now that he knew Baihe would eventually ascend as well.
“Where are they taking him?” Lianhua asked, looking at Chi Yincang.
The last of the gray kobolds had fallen or slunk away, leaving the others to gather their injured. Surprisingly, there didn’t seem to be many, if any, dead defenders. It was almost like those who had attacked them had been doing their best to avoid dealing fatal blows.
“That way,” Chi Yincang said, allowing the link to his master to strengthen again. His vision shifted to gray, and he knew his eyes would be entirely black. “I don’t know exactly where, but we can follow. He’s trying to fight. There will be blood.”
“Let’s go, then,” Lianhua said, her jaw firming. “Grandmother, you should leave. You’re no warrior. Raff went to check on Kyla and Mei, but when he returns, you can-”
Lady Baihe pressed a finger to her granddaughter’s lips, stilling her words. Her own expression was as determined as Lianhua’s, leaving no doubt that they were related. “I won’t be a burden, and I won’t stay behind. Let’s go save my husband.”