David

When they exited the building, the sun had not set in full yet, so there were not yet any lanterns in the sky. It was late enough that the moon was clearly visible. Between them, in the sky above, was a gradation of colors - the yellow sunset, a dancing green miasma which stilled into a majestic purple and then into the deep blue of the night sky.

Feiyan looked delighted. "It's an auspicious day!" she declared. "The Last Breath of Summer is in the air on the day of the Autumn Festival."

"The Last Breath of Summer?" Alice queried.

Kanhu nodded. "Late in the summer, the sun breathes out and when its breath comes into contact with the qi of the world, they fight for dominance over the skies and produce that shade of green. We also know them as the Northern Lights."

In front of the building, the sword used to send the new disciples was still buried in the ground.

"Do you think they'll want this back?" David asked, walking up to it.

Feiyan gasped. "Are you going to steal it?"

David rolled his eyes. "I was thinking more of returning it to the peak masters," he said, gripping the pommel with the tip pointed towards the floor - hopefully in a way that was nonthreatening.

The group of four began walking down the mountain. Crowds of disciples were gathered in front of the many buildings of earth peak. Some of them were roasting poultry over open fires, some were drinking tea from little pewter cups, some were drinking wine from ceramic vases. Furniture had been dragged onto their lawns en masse.

Two commonalities were shared amongst all of the groups - trays and trays of little brown pastries known as mooncakes, which were sliced into eighths and passed around, and disciples writing their wishes on paper lanterns of all sizes and shapes with sticks of charcoal. Some disciples wrote long messages on their lanterns, but the majority scratched out a singular proverb onto their lanterns - rain falls from the sky, as mankind strives to fly.

As they passed by a particularly large gathering in front of a house that must have belonged to a core disciple, a familiar face waved at them - it was Daoist Liang. She was holding a tray of mooncakes. She wore a bright purple flower in her hair and a wide smile as she approached them.

"Greetings, juniors," she said, holding out the tray towards them. "Have some cake, they were baked by Elder Ma."

David took a slice of the mooncake, thanking her. Qi wafted off of the slices of mooncake, like a distant chime. He gave it a nibble. It was incredibly sweet and slightly earthy, but light. He was about to pop the rest of it into his mouth when Alice swooped in head first and ate his portion.

Alice grinned at him, wiping away a crumb from her lips. "Are you a bird?" David asked, chuckling. Alice looped her arm around him and put her head against his shoulder, still chewing.

"What's with the blade?" asked Liang, eyeing the sword.

"We found it in front of the building, with a message to get to Sword Peak before the lighting of the last lantern," said David. "I thought maybe they'd want the sword back."

Liang gave the sword a little tap with her free hand. The sword quivered in David's hand, and there was the sound of a distant bell. Sever. A thin cut appeared on Liang's forefinger and a single drop of blood welled up, before the wound vanished. She flicked the blood towards the ground.

"Suck up," Liang accused cheerfully. She handed another piece of cake to David. He popped it into his mouth, dodging Alice's attempt to grab it from him. "That sword belongs to Fairy Guan."

There was a little sizzle. David looked downwards - the drop of blood had blackened the grass at Liang's feet and a thin, hazy trail rose from the spot on the ground.

"Oops, that's a bit of a health hazard," Liang said. "Hold this," she said, firmly placing the tray into Kanhu's hands. She rolled up her sleeves and made a pinching motion with her fingers, then tapped her wrists together. There was the sound of air being sucked through a straw, and qi like a clicking drum. Liang tightened her fingers into fists. Both the sound and the qi vanished, as did the fumes, leaving behind a charred circle the size of a fist on the grass.

"P-poison cultivator," Feiyan whimpered. She hid behind David, clinging to his robes.

Alice glared at her. "You already knew that," she said.

Feiyan scowled and let go of David.

"You've taken food from a poison cultivator," whispered Kanhu dramatically. "Can you feel the mooncake sliding into your stomach, crippling your cultivation?"

Feiyan pouted.

"Sister Liang, have you written your lantern?" someone called out from behind her.

"Yes, it's with the rest of them!" Liang shouted back over her shoulder.

"What did you write on your lantern?" Alice asked.

"That's a very personal question," Liang said with a sniff. "I have penned my deepest and darkest desires on it. I definitely didn't write the word ascension on it and throw it onto the pile." She grinned at their nonplussed faces. "Your hopes, your dreams, your cultivation, they're your own," she explained. "Prayer is for those who don't have real solutions to their problems. That's why mostly everyone puts the last line of the Scripture on their lantern, if they participate at all."

"Rain falls from the sky as mankind strives to fly?" David queried.

"I'm still not sure whether you're just overly observant, or some kind of spy," said Daoist Liang, but there was too much humor in her voice for it to be a serious accusation. "Anyway, the four of you should probably head to Sword Peak sooner rather than later. They're waiting on you to start the initiation. I'm sure Fairy Guan will be absolutely delighted that you're returning her sword to her." She gave David a pointed look.

Alice frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't you worry about it," said Liang with a little shrug. "Happy Autumn Festival," she said, sauntering back to her group of friends by the bonfire.

They continued along the road down the mountain, with Feiyan and Kanhu arguing about the proper way to celebrate the Autumn Festival. Soon, they found themselves on the Skybound Path once more, in front of Earth Peak's entrance.

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The road was crowded, not with the disciples of the Ascending Sky, but with the citizens of Tianbei. They were all dressed in colorful robes or costumes. All manners of stalls covered the streets. Some vendors hawked the opera masks, butterfly wings and daoist jewelry that adorned every man, woman and child. Others sold mooncakes, tea, meat on skewers, and alcohol. Still more sold curios and talismans with loud promises about health and longevity.

Almost everyone had lanterns. Unlike the lanterns of the disciples, most of the civilian populace carried the same paper lanterns in red and white, covered in writing. They were cylindrical and stout, with light wooden frames. Some of them had that proverb from the Skybound Scripture written on them, but most sported myriad wishes and hopes.

The crowds thinned as they drew more north and more east. When they neared Sword Peak, the houses became compounds and celebrations were undertaken within them rather than on the streets. The sun had set in full now, but the night was still bright with the glow of the northern lights and the harvest moon. Feiyan and Kanhu had stopped arguing.

There was no entrance into the depths of Sword Peak as they had been with Earth Peak. Instead, an imposing arch stood at the end of the Skybound Path. A sense of weight, a low, imposing gong pressed against David as they passed under it wordlessly.

"Can you believe it?" Kanhu asked suddenly.

"Feiyan really was special, after all," she muttered, as they ascended Sword Peak.

David and Alice said nothing.

Sword Peak was rugged and steep. The vegetation grew sparse and hardy, the trees were tall, thin pines. The qi in the air was far more dense than anywhere David had been before.

"There are many Stories here," Alice whispered. "You don't just believe that the Skybound Scripture was written here, you feel it."

They'd begun walking quicker - at the speed that only cultivators could move. In just a few minutes, they were level with the elevation to the summit of Earth Peak. Further up the peak, David could hear the sound of Songs, complex and deep - he recognized two of them, loud and principled and proud.

Kanhu sucked in his breath sharply. "Look," he said, a sound of wonder and not of distress. He had turned around, casting his eye over Tianbei Valley. "The lantern lighting!"

The bells of Tianbei began to ring as the light of thousands and thousands of lanterns lit the city like midday, so brightly the swirling green miasma of the northern lights were blotted out entirely and the sky lightened three shades.

Slowly, the lanterns began to rise from the city, pinpricks of yellow and red surging towards the sky carrying the hopes and dreams of a valley.

"Are we going to be late?" Feiyan asked, as they picked up their pace, turning around to look at the lanterns.

"No, we're not, but we should hurry." Earth Peak, to their left, and Sky Peak, to their right, remained dark.

In the far, far distance, a sheet of light rose from the west - from the city of Bei'an and perhaps on the other side of Black Dragon Strait. David thought of the people they'd met since they'd arrived, of the lanterns hanging from the doors of the cities they had visited. Were lanterns ascending from those places too?

Alice tightened her grip over his hand, smiling, as the four of them ran up the side of the mountain, ever closer to the pounding drums and dazzling strings from the Songs of the peak masters and elders of the Ascending Sky.

"Wait up!" Feiyan huffed and puffed, as they pushed through the clouds of Sword Peak. Kanhu said nothing but his breathing was raspy and uneven. David and Alice slowed down, letting them catch up. After several moments, they passed the cloud cover, which obscured the city of Tianbei.

The night, however, was clear and the stars were bright. To the west, David saw the dark spires of Bei'an and the silvery glow of the Iron Road cutting through the murky, hazy bamboo forest. To the southwest, craggy mountains obscured what must have been the city of Xijing. Directly south, David could make out the single, tallest pagoda of Dongjing - the home of the Clear Skies Sect. To the far south and east, he could make out the outline of Sky River. Ping'an might have been invisible, but he was sure he could see the shadows of the mountain range crowned by Cloud Mountain.

They were rapidly approaching yet another arch, of carved pine, a stone’s throw from the pinnacle of Sword Peak.

"Halt!" rang out a clear, melodious voice that David recognized. "Who knocks before the gates of heaven?"

A fairy dressed in white stood ten paces before them, in front of the arch, impossibly beautiful. At her waist was a sword. From her hands hung an unlit lantern.

"The Sword of Sword Peak, Resolved, asks for disciples to identify themselves!"

Feiyan, in a show of uncharacteristic bravery, stepped forward. "Disciple Zhu Feiyan, Walking, approaches the gates."

"Disciple Zhu, what does it mean to cultivate?"

Feiyan bit her lip and looked at the other three, full of an instant regret. She turned back to Fairy Guan, who looked amused. "I do not know. I wish to be taught," Feiyan admitted.

"If Disciple Zhu should step through the gates, she will put her allegiances to the Ascending Sky before all others, be it family or previous masters. Is this an acceptable condition?"

Feiyan took a deep breath. A deep panic shone in her eyes - far more real than the fear she had shown when she'd nearly been killed on the road to Tianbei. A sudden determination replaced it. "It is acceptable."

"Time is coincidence and worth is innate. Strip the chains of fate and rewrite your history." If David wasn’t mistaken, those must have been words of the Skybound Scripture. "Enter the Ascending Sky."

Zhu Feiyan stepped forward. As she passed Fairy Guan, the Peak Master gave her a light pat on the shoulder and whispered something into her ear. Feiyan nodded rapidly and a look of relief passed over her features.

"The Sword of Sword Peak, Resolved, asks for disciples to identify themselves!"

"Disciple Tai Kanhu, Contemplating, approaches the gates." Kanhu enunciated each word as clearly as he could, trying his best to hide the telltale accent from Minghai.

"Disciple Tai, what does it mean to cultivate?"

"To always better yourself, to see the answers to questions unasked," Kanhu declared.

"If Disciple Tai should step through the gates, he will pursue questions to which there may be no answer. Is this an acceptable condition?"

"Yes."

"Thought and action are one and the same. Cast of stone or cast in blame, live for tomorrow and reach for the truth. Enter the Ascending Sky."

Fairy Guan didn't speak to Kanhu - instead, she gave him a solemn nod as he walked past her.

Alice was next.

"Disciple Chow Mulan, Bearing, approaches the gates."

"Disciple Chow, what does it mean to cultivate?"

Alice tilted her head slightly, looking upwards, then gave an answer they'd heard on the Iron Path, before the Linking Stone. "To issue a challenge to the skies above."

Fairy Guan didn't speak immediately, choosing instead to observe Alice silently. She then nodded. "If Disciple Chow should step through the gates, she will learn which battles are worth fighting. Is this an acceptable condition?"

Alice nodded. "It is."

"The Path is long and life is perilous. Be humble in mind and proud of heart, and the road will be kind. Enter the Ascending Sky."

Alice skipped past the peak master.

Fairy Guan turned to David, who bowed lightly and slipped the sword into the dirt before him.

"Your Master thanks you for the return of her sword," she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear, winking. She then straightened her back and called out. "The Sword of Sword Peak, Resolved, asks for her disciple to identify himself."

“Disciple Ji Kang, Believing, approaches the gates.”

"Disciple Ji, what does it mean to cultivate?"

"Open the door and walk the plains, by light of sun and moon - make them your own."

Fairy Guan shook her head, looking as if she was trying to hold in a laugh. "If Disciple Ji should step through the gates, he will learn the remaining words of the Skybound Scripture. Is this an acceptable condition?"

David nodded. "I accept."

As the lanterns rose past the clouds, Fairy Guan delivered the final verse of the Skybound Scripture in response to the first. "Rain falls from the sky, as mankind strives to fly."