“Why’re you taking him!” Xu’uina said yelling at I’ani as he walked up the stairs, the group following behind. Mei feeling his jaw muscles clenching.

“Why are you taking such an untrained mess of a group! Exception to Sion Karu.”

Mei shrunk in on himself, trying to be out of sight of everybody, just wanting to disappear. Xukali standing beside him.

“That ain’t the nicest thing to say,” I’ani said with an unbroken stride, not looking back.

“Answer me!”

“Ehhh… no.”

“Wha- you, you. You little-”

Ko’ipo put a hand on his sisters shoulder, “Xuxu, I think it’s-”

“No!,” she shrugged off his hand, stomping up the temple stairs till she was keeping pace with I’ani, “I saw what you could do during the festival. The least you can do is pass your teaching to someone more competent.”

I’ani stopped. Then spun on her, staring directly into her eyes. Somehow looking bigger than her with the over two foot height difference, “Ok, sure,” He said in a even tone with barely veiled annoyance, “But you gotta answer me one question.”

Surprised but with a smile, Mei's sister nodded.

“Why?”

“What?” Xu’uina said with her brow furrowing, “Why..? That’s… easy. Why wouldn’t I, it’s power. It’s all that’s needed”

“That’s it?”

She nodded.

I’ani rolled his eyes, “Boring, at least talk about penguins as a metaphor or something. That’s way more interesting. But just power, the only thing I can really say about that is that I just have nothing to say. I’d just be quoting some long dead poet. Now shew, I have nothing for you.”

“But-”

“I can’t give you power If that’s what you want. Go apprentice to a politician or a merchant if you do.”

She started stuttering out a reply her face turning beat red, but she stormed down the stairs. Muttering something under her breath

Then Mei felt someone tap his shoulder, turning around he saw his older brother.

Ko’ipo his mouth open to talk, but hesitated. He swallowed nervously and continued, “Are you sure about this? I mean it isn’t safe and, and it won’t be easy for-” Ko’ipo stopped himself, taking a breath and continued, “Are you sure about this,” he said putting extra emphasis on the sentence.

Mei felt like he couldn’t talk, a lump in his throat, the world spinning, all he wanted to do was not be seen. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Xukali giving a cheesy thumbs up.

Chewing on the bottom of his lip, Mei nodded. Not making eye contact.

“...Ok,” he said with a pause, “be safe… please”

he turned around, following Xu’uina down the stairs. Then he stopped and turned around, yelling “Oh, and I’ll be always here, alright!”

Mei smiled and nodded.

Ko’ipo waved back and continued his descent.

The group continued. Walking past the temple taking a bridge to the edge of the lake, pearls of ice washing up onto shore. Creating a wall separating the beach and the ground.

Walking on the dirt I’ani brought them past the river. To a beaten path with wild things encroaching on it. Snowflakes drifting down more and more as they climbed up, wind whipping in their ears. The tempo of the storm steadily growing greater and greater as they climbed up the mountain path.

The flakes falling onto Mei’s eyelashes, the flurry of snow obscuring I’ani’s path. Mei only guessing where the road was at this point, the landscape around him an angular canvas of an ice and stone tundra.

So Mei followed the only thing he could trust, his eyes glued to I’ani’s unbreaking gate. The world a blur but for that one man. His body breaking the worst of the headwind, Then he started speaking. The voice cut through the blur of wind and snow whirling around Mei like there was nothing between them.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“There’s always one story I encounter no matter where or when I am.”

Mei slipped on the ice, an unseen hand quickly pulling him up. Giving a silent thanks to whoever it was as he continued forward, ignoring the blood now dripping from his nose.

“Here’s how it goes,” He cleared his throat, “There was once a Goddess looking for her lost child, running herself ragged as she traversed the realms unendingly. Her body finally giving out in a forest, far from the rest of the world. There she gave up hope. But by luck a passing merchant took her in, helping her recover and in return, she took care of the merchant's newborn at night so the new parents could get a night's rest under the promise they don’t watch her while she does. So at night, she took care of the baby, feeding it a part of her divinity and burning away its mortality in a fire. But the merchant grew curious, they tried to keep their promise. Resisting to look night after night. And finally their curiosity got the better of the merchant and they looked.”

Mei could see the tip of the mountain, stairs carved into the rock. The first steps just a few feet away.

“The merchant understandably was kinda surprised to see his child burning alive and scooped it out of the fire. Disrupting the ritual, the goddess mad at the broken promise punished the merchant making so the burns on his arms would never heal. But not wanting to punish the babe she gave it knowledge of how to bloom the divinity she gave to it. To be better than their Parents and chip away at their mortality. Thus came the first cultivator, mage, yogi, or whatever you wanna call em”

Mei’s foot dragged over the final step to the top of the mountain, staring at I’ani as the man turned around. Framed by two pillars made of a glassy black stone. Similar obsidian or onyx, But different in a way that Mei couldn’t put his finger on. The bar at the top of the gate was carved single unadorned dragon. The purple sun Reaper behind it silhouetting I’ani directly through the gate. The man gazing at his new apprentices..

“Pretty simple fable. But in my experience. It's bullshit. It says to abandon what was of you, to abandon what breaks first to transcend beyond humanity. But I have found more often than not a diamond is not born of what’s leftover in the ashes. But forged of coal.”

Mei weakly looked at I’ani. His vision doubling then blurring. Then finally blackening.

OOO

“I thought you might come here.”

I’ani turned around carrying Mei, seeing the head priest LI’iu dressed in white blending in with the snow. The wind now gently carrying the flakes through the air.

“Not many people remember this place, only old heads, and priests do really,” he continued.

“Isn’t this a sacred site?”

“Time erodes all things. Be it memory or rocks, or even the namesake for a mountain range”

I’ani nodded and sighed “I’ve seen it too many times.” A solemn moment of silence passed between the two then I’ani spoke up again “So um, you got any place here to stay? Somebody fainted,” I’ani nodded towards the boy in his arms.

“Ah, yes. I live in a house close by.”

They followed him to a log cabin less than twenty feet away from the Dragon's gate on the other side of the mountain. The freezing mass of I’ani’s apprentices shambling inside. All of them collapsing by the fire, shivering. Most of them Falling asleep on the spot.

Except for Karu, who politely scraped the snow off his clothes before entering and sat on a chair. The Lo’iju pouring tea from a pot that looked comically small in his giant hands. I’ani putting Mei’s limp body on a chair, releasing some of his mana to heat up the cottage. Pushing healing energy directly into Meil without touching him. I’ani sitting at a small wooden table covered in scratches and rings. Taking the cup of tea offered him, taking a sip.

Grimacing, he put it down, “Damn that’s grassy, got any honey?”

“No. Sorry. It’s too cold to raise them this far down south, merchants rarely come down here during winter. I’ll get something else if it’s not to your liking.”

“No, no. Just overpowering, it would probably be better in small sips. Do you have any leaves I can keep? I got a little growing collection, don’t think I have this one.”

“Of course,” He sat up taking a small pouch from a cupboard and giving it to him

Then he sat down. the room silent as they took sips, One of I’ani’s apprentices silently snoring.

“So, how are you going to train my grandchildren?”

“Didn’t I tell you at the Funeral Right?”

“No, you only said you would, not how. But from what I’ve seen I’m guessing you’re planning to bring them around the world to train them,” The priest paused, looking into his cup, “Appropriate. The clan doesn’t like to admit it but we’ve been stagnated for decades now, while the rest of the world runs forward.”

“It’s the age of empires,” I’ani took a small sip of the tea, “And the O’ozhiwu is a small kingdom made of even smaller Sects barely united. The only reason you’re not a part of the Unseelie or Fomor is because of your steel. If you’re next to any other empire y'all be dead by now.”

“Indeed,” He took a sip, “But my main concern,” The old man said, “Is what will happen when children gain the strength you promise them.”

“Bold of you to assume they’ll succeed,” I’ani said, pouring himself another cup.

“I have faith, but I’ve seen what such a thing can do to a man.”

“I see… but what do you want me to do about it?”

“Have you heard of the word Zhi’iana?”

I’ani smiled, “Yes.”

“Well in modern days It’s interpreted as the process to improve one’s self, usually in cultivation. But in the old texts still alive it would be better translated as ‘guidance’ or ‘teacher’. Something to look to when one is lost. Like a star for a stranded sailor,” He took a sip, “I want you to be that star.”

I’ani looked at the Lo’iju, “I will make that promise to try, but I can not swear an oath to succeed. As you’ve probably noticed, that bunch are all people with free will,” He gestured at his students, “They are not perfect in the slightest. That goes both ways. You understand?”

The old man furrowed his brow, looking into his cup. But said, “I will… accept that.”

They finished the pot of tea, the fire dwindling. I’ani’s power being the last wall against the brutal white flurry of ice outside. The dim sunlight setting below the horizon for the last time in this land for seven people for a long, long time.