The Legend of Bin Lin Hai and the Founding of the Children of the Flame

Translated from the ancient scrolls and intended for the incomplete manuscript: “A Shining Light in the Burning Citadel: The Complete History of the Children of the Flame”

by Bookmaster Bo Fanza Hi

Collection Date and Location: 16 Zhuye i0351. The home of Dravu Jaatha-Manaht (destroyed in The Battle of Burning Rain. Bat-Hom, Saadhari) 7:468:PDK-2

LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION CODE: Restricted - Level 3 of 3.

Scroll 2: Bin Lin Hai Challenges the Mountain Giants

So it was that Bin Lin Hai continues on the treacherous path towards the keep of the Great Lord in the Mountain. The storm recedes, leaving behind thick blankets of snow on all sides of the narrow trail that blocks her path. Clutching the green gemstone she found in the cave, the last of her father’s words on her back, Lin Hai takes slow, conscious steps as she trudges through the deep snow and pushes her way up and through the mountains. After several hours, with her legs tired and numb, she comes to a large, open plateau, clear of snow and surrounded by massive grey rocks. She breathes an easy, exhausted breath, grateful to be out of the heavy drifts. But then she remembers: open spaces, especially when surrounded by narrow ones, are often sites of danger. With no way to go but forward, Lin Hai carefully steps into the large clearing.

Just as she had suspected, when she is about halfway through the clearing, grunts and the sound of large footsteps echo off the stone. Lin Hai starts to run, but before she can get very far, a large boulder smashes into the ground ahead of her. She turns around and is confronted with a sight few have lived to describe. Standing atop a mountain of boulders the Kifu, the great mountain giants of Zhidao, stare down at her.

The largest of them stands three times taller than Lin Hai. It flexes its four long, muscular arms and stomps its short, trunk-like legs. The ground shakes. Lin Hai backs up in fear as it stares at her with four thin, black eyes collected in a diamond on its forehead.

The kifu speak to her in a language she does not understand. They gesture at her, screaming and pounding together the rocks, moving in closer. Lin Hai clutches her stone tight in her hands. Its sharp edges break the skin, and thin lines of blood pour out. Her chest pounds. She looks around to try and find a way to flee, but there is nothing but snow and the jagged rocks.

And just as before, the feelings inside her overwhelm her senses. Anger at those who forced her on this path and face the mighty kifu. Her father. The noblewoman. The Great Lord in the Mountain. She feels the heat from the stone and the small wisps of smoke as blood trailing out of her clenched fist begins to evaporate.

She stares down at it. It glows, pulsing with life. And Bin Lin Hai is not afraid.

She looks up just in time to see the largest of the kifu reach down to pick her up. She pushes its hand away, and it swings its mighty arm into her, sending her flying and crashing to the ground. The kifu rushes towards her and grasps her head in its hands, determined to crush her skull like a tapu fruit.

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Lin Hai grabs its wrist and turns her thoughts inward. The kifu screams as its arm becomes a blazing torch. The fire quickly spreads, and soon, the kifu is covered in blue and orange flames. It thrashes and wails, running to its kin, but they recoil in fear and run back into the mountains. Soon, it is just Lin Hai standing alone in the clearing, watching as the great Kifu turns to ash before her.

Alone on the plateau, Lin Hai looks at the corpse in front of her. As she did with her family’s mule, she gives thanks to the kifu, whose courage and power she has now absorbed through her victory. As she looks down at the still-smoking body, she begins to understand a deep truth of life that her young and sheltered years had not revealed to her before: all creatures that breathe must one day return to ash. For this Kifu, she was the instrument of the Will of Time, who helped it return to this state of existence. The purest state. The one we all share. The state of ash. All are ashes.

Lin Hai looks at the stone in her hands. She marvels at the power it has given her. She peers deep into it, searching for an explanation, desperate to find what is within it that gives her its power when it is most needed. But the rough stone provides no answers other than the ones she already knows.

Lin Hai is no longer a helpless child. In fact, she never was. Within each of us is the power to achieve the Great Impossible. We only need to find ways to unlock our potential. She thinks of her father’s helplessness, his weakness in bending to the Lord’s demands without question. His weakness sends his only child through the deadly mountain pass just to heed the Lord’s command. A journey he knows few survive.

Bin Lin Hai now understands the truth that most people in the world will not seek or find their own inner power. They will not set ablaze the inner flame capable of keeping them warm in the coldest of nights and protecting them from the great and dangerous monsters of the mountain. She peers deep into the stone.

“I will not be one of these people,” she tells it. “I will not be the one to turn to ash before those that would seek to be Time’s instrument. I will be Time’s instrument. If all is indeed ashes, then I will be the one to set the flame.”

Lin Hai places the stone back in her pocket and looks to the path ahead that leads out of the clearing and to the mountain keep. She takes one step, confident and sure of herself. Then another. Then another as she continues on her journey, walking the path her life has set before her.

For two days she climbs, the entire time in deep contemplation of the mysteries of potential, strength, and helplessness. For two days her resolve sets deeper and deeper. Her passions become more intimate. Her connection to the stone grows stronger.

On the third day, as the sun sets over the eastern edges of the mountain range, Lin Hai arrives at the keep of the Mountain Lord. Its long, smooth walls stretch out above her, and too many guards to count walk the parapets. Through the iron bars of the gates, she can see huddled servants toiling to see to his every whim.

She approaches five guards standing watch at the gate. Dressed in the elaborate armor supplied by their wealthy benefactor, they carry large, ornate, barbed spears. They are ready for war.

Much like the Kifu, the guards tower over her, looking down with contempt at the small young woman who stands before them unafraid. To them, she is barely an adult. Far too young to be a threat. But they are fools, as are all who judge people on appearance alone.

“My name is Bin Lin Hai,” she tells them, “and I have brought my father’s words to the Great Lord in the Mountain."

The guards look at each other, then to the simple peasant girl in front of them, whose clothes have been tattered by the trail of the mountain path. If they were to ask questions, if they were to keep people such as Lin Hai from entering, the power of her voice and the sureness of her words kept them from stopping her. Without much thought or knowing why, they open the gate. And Lin Hai, after six days, finally enters the Mountain Keep.