David

When they walked through the red door into the communal dorm, they came upon a living room with many doors. The room was small and cozy, and smelled of pine. The walls were of dark, well polished rosewood and the floors were of a deep mahogany. Benches of teak were arranged in a semi-circle around the center of the room.

Instead of the Yin Fire lamps of Earth Peak, the room was illuminated with the glow of red lanterns and large, square windows with panes of obsidian glass. The glass was so thin, the sunlight only took on a touch of grey.

There were more people than David expected in the living room.

In the corner sat an inner disciple whose dark hair seemed almost purple in the light. She'd colonized one of the benches and moved it next to a window. She didn't even look up - instead, she was studying a scripture. Unlike the other disciples they'd seen up to this point, the woman wore white and the same red sash that Fairy Guan had.

A pair of twins sat opposite one another dead center in the room, in mirrored lotus positions on the floor, cultivating. They looked to be David's age. Both boys cracked open their left eyes and turned to face David and Alice.

At a small stone table covered in teacups, two boys in black robes played what appeared to be a card game. One of them was clearly winning, from the other boy's expression.

Zhu Feiyan was the only one standing, still wearing her white hanfu. Her disciple's robes were on a nearby bench. She was watching the card game with a sort of distaste. The princess greeted them by inclining her head slightly.

"Greetings, fellow Daoists," said Feiyan, in a lilt that was more melodious than her normal voice. "I'm so glad you've made it! I would like to formally introduce myself as Zhu Feiyan, Eleventh Princess of the House of Zhu, fourteen years old, of the city of Xijing."

"Formerly of the city of Xijing," came a dry whisper. It had come from the corner, from the Inner Disciple.

Feiyan scowled at the woman, but she wasn't even looking. "Formerly of the city of Xijing," she conceded, sounding rather put out - and much more like the Feiyan they'd met on the road. "I have taken a step on the Path, and I wish to establish my foundations through the Skybound Scripture."

That broke the ice easily. The twins stood and bowed. "Greetings," they said together. "We would like to introduce ourselves as Xue, formally of Jiangxi. We are fourteen and we are Foundation Establishment cultivators. We cultivate the Dao of Transformations."

"Which of the transformations?" asked Alice.

Neither twin answered, choosing instead to glare as if Alice had asked for their mother's maiden name or the make of their first vehicle.

"They're really creepy," said Feiyan cheerfully. Both twins ignored her.

The boys who were playing card games stared at one another, then both opened their mouths at once. "Greet-" "Hello-"

They both stopped short, then glared at one another. "No, you go first," said the boy who was winning. His accent was clipped and short and rough. David had heard such an accent before, on the boat ride to Ping'an.

The other boy complied. "I'm Leng Qitai, born in Dongjing. I'm also in Foundation Establishment and I'm sixteen. I'm a poison cultivator, but that doesn't make me a bad person," he said. Leng had a long, full face and a jovial attitude which showed in his easy smile. As he spoke, he helped himself to the tea on the table - it was clear that all the cups had been for him. He was somewhat stocky compared to everyone else in the room, but he wasn't fat.

"Would you say not all poison cultivators-"

David gave Alice a warning look, more sardonic than chastising.

"I'm happy you understand," said Leng Qitai, raising a fist into the air. "Not all poison cultivators assassinate. Not all poison cultivators- Why are you laughing?" He glared at David.

"One thing is certain. All poison cultivators are bad at card games," said the final boy. "Greetings to my new fellow disciples," he said with that clipped drawl. Unlike everyone other man they'd met, Kanhu's hair was cropped short, shorter than David's hair. There was a little tattoo under his right eye which could be confused for a birthmark. It was a simple rectangle. His robes fit loosely.

"The name is Tai Kanhu, Contemplating." This was a term for Foundation Establishment that Li had mentioned in passing. "I've cultivated no scriptures in my fifteen years, because I haven't found the right one for me yet. I suppose that's another thing I share with the princess."

"You don't share anything with me!" snapped Feiyan. Alice narrowed her eyes.

Kanhu didn't even wait for her to finish speaking. "I'm formerly of the Kingdom of Yi, in the Southern Continent. I also happen to claim a royal line."

David and Alice exchanged glances. Alice had that particular look on her face - that Cheshire grin that David liked so much more than the trouble he knew it would bring.

Alice lifted the hem of her skirt and bent her knees in a light curtsy, which David was sure wasn't a traditional form of greeting. She then stared Kanhu dead in the eye. "What a happy day, what a joyous occasion, to be united with the last lord of the Tai!" she exclaimed. " We, too, are from the Kingdom of Yi. Are you our long lost prince?"

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A series of emotions flickered across Kanhu's face - confusion, disbelief, then anger.

"We are musicians of the White Bone Yi, bound by lineage to serve the ruling families," said Alice, undoubtedly spouting off some vaguely historical nonsense from their homeworld.

Tai Kanhu didn't seem like he had any idea of what she was talking about. "If you're a musician, play me the music of my people," he blustered.

Alice nodded. "First, I must introduce myself to my fellow Daoists! I am Chow Mulan, Bearing, in search of the Sea of Myself." She turned to Feiyan. "Seventeen."

There was the sharp intake of breath from the corner, but when David looked towards the inner disciple, she was still reading her scripture.

David thought Alice was leaning a little heavily into the snooty way Li spoke of the steps along the path, but he understood why cultivators were the way they were. There wasn't anything quite as cool as referring to your cultivation with a cool title.

"And I am Ji Kang," he said. "Believing. I wish to light my Golden Stove. I am the same age as my companion."

"Ah, so you're liars," said Kanhu, who knew these names for the cores they were to form.

Feiyan nodded emphatically, until she realized she was agreeing with the boy. She stopped, and began playing with her nails in a way that reminded David of Alice. Her eyes flitted between Kanhu and Alice with distaste. When she realized David was watching, her expression became more delicate.

"Funny. The two Inner Disciples at the admissions office thought so as well," said Alice, who was unpacking her guqin. "Would you also like to call the three peak masters to check my bone age?"

Kanhu set his jaw angrily.

Alice sat down on the floor and balanced her guqin on her knees. "I'm Chow, fifty-ninth of my line. If I can claim a master, it is the river." She smirked at David, who rolled his eyes. "Today, I will play for you the Dance of the Yi People."

The sound of thunder echoed in the distance, though David couldn't say for certain that it wasn't the sound of a song crashing into the consciousness of the world. He looked at the sky through the grey-tinted windows. There were no clouds.

As the early notes sounded across the register of her guqin, Alice continued to tell the story of the song. "This was a piece originally written for the four-stringed lute. It was a response to a song about the kingdom of Yao, even further south than the kingdom of Yi. They were a conquering tribe who swept over the southern continent many years ago. The pipa is an instrument of war. The Dance of the Yi People is the sound of uprising."

Alice gave a grim smile as her fingers stretched across the strings. David listened for the sound of falling water, falling tears and falling in battle.

The sound of music grew in the room and echoed through spaces unused. Back home, it was the custom of string instruments to be played with picks, but Alice's nails, which glistened like stars in the night sky, brought tremolos which would have been difficult to play on a piano, let alone a guqin.

As the song drew to a close, the windows shuddered.

"Are you convinced?" Alice asked, of Kanhu, of everyone.

"No," Kanhu said, who didn’t seem nearly as sure as before.

"I would like to know what you've established your foundations off of, senior sister," said Leng Qitai.

"What else but music?" asked Alice.

"Preposterous," said Feiyan, twirling her hair. "Imagine establishing your foundations off of something that wasn't a scripture." She turned to David. "I bet older brother has established his foundations off of something far more profound."

"Poetry," said David, who considered Feiyan rather vapid.

"Lame," she said, turning her nose up. She crossed the room over to him. "I've heard of people undoing their foundations to form better ones." She looked up at him, her eyelashes fluttering. "Would you like to cultivate the Skybound Scripture with me?"

"Absolutely not," answered Alice, for David.

"There is no harm in studying the Skybound Scripture," came the voice from the corner. "It will aid you regardless of whatever you've cultivated already."

The new disciples turned en masse to the voice. The inner disciple was staring at them with brilliant, electric-violet eyes, but David found his own drawn to her long, delicate fingers. She was thin and beautiful, like most cultivators, but the best way David could describe her was wispy. She looked as though she would blow away in the wind. "Open the door and walk the plains, by light of sun and moon - make them your own. Close your eyes and feel the heated promises of sky and stone-"

"Fulfill them when you're grown. Step towards heaven and bend to no masters, follow the teachings atop hills and under caves - bound for hearth and home," continued David, who could never help himself to a bit of poetry.

"Excellent," said the woman. "Every generation, the Skybound Scripture is something obvious and beautiful and bright to our talented disciples. Or so I'm told. Though..." she trailed off.

"Though?" asked Alice.

"Though I've not heard of anyone being able to recite our scripture to us without having seen it," she whispered. "I'm Daoist Liang. I was assigned to watch our incoming disciples, and now I've come across an enigma worth reporting."

David nodded steadily.

"But I don't believe I'll do so. I've been reported many times for suspicious activity myself. It is not easy being a poison cultivator." She glanced at Leng Qitai.

At this, Alice perked up. "What a coincidence! You're friends with Daoist Li!"

"Who?" The woman looked confused. "There are many Lis, in and out of the sect. It's a very common last name."

"Li Qingshui," said David. "She's with the Iron-"

"Ah, I see," said Daoist Liang, cutting him off. She studied the group. "It doesn't necessarily matter where she's from. Did you meet little Li on the road?"

"Something like that," said David.

"Talented little Li. I wonder when she'll establish her foundations," she said. The crooked line her mouth made was unkind.

“She already has,” started Alice, but Liang shook her head firmly.

Her face changed abruptly into something more welcoming. "Any friend of little Li's is a friend of Liang's. I owe her much, and her master," she said meaningfully. "Much that shouldn't be spoken of in public. Seek me out after initiation and we'll have time to... reminisce," she finished. "I haven't spoken to her in nearly three decades. Perhaps it is time to send a letter."

With that, she gathered up the bamboo sticks she'd been looking at, bundled them together and strode out of the room.

"Uh, wasn't she supposed to be watching us?" said Tai Kanhu.