45. Convergence

Pi Phon looked at the ring on his finger. Acutely aware of the guards who’d been present nearby ever since meeting with the real Little Bug where the boy had returned the gift from Di Ram, and by extension the former patriarch of the Six Mountain Sect, Pi Phon was both nervous about Tonilla’s intentions with the guards and grateful for the protection she was currently providing him.

But he knew just how rapidly that protection might vanish should the greed of these southerners overwhelm their senses. He’d been very careful to taste his food as he ate, sensing for any unfamiliar flavors in fear of poison.

It wasn’t just that the ring was valuable. Spatial artifacts were incredibly valuable, but ultimately they had a price. They were imported from off world, created by immortals as they explored their understanding of the cosmos to greater heights and deeper depths. But they had a price associated with them.

That many would believe that this ring alone would be worth killing him hadn’t slipped Pi Phon’s notice.

And then there was the fact that it contained his entire sect’s heritage to consider. That was worth perhaps twice again what the ring itself was worth.

He sighed and thumped his head against the wall in frustration. He didn’t want this burden.

The door opened, and the false Little Bug stepped in. Then suddenly it changed and it was slightly more real than it had been before.

“Little Bug, is that you?” he asked.

“I am not Po Guah at the moment,” the boy-avatar said. “You are troubled?”

“You put a price-tag on my life when you gave me this ring, Little Bug, and many are checking their purses to see if they can afford it,” Pi Phon said.

“Oh. Yes. I’m sorry, you’re right, I was gambling with the restraint of the sect masters who were in the room when it was handed over,” Little Bug said. “I can take it back if you’d like?”

“You already have a target on your back. No.”

“You complain that I give it to you and refuse to give it back,” Little Bug commented, a grin on his face.

“I’m complicated, okay? But this ring belongs on the hand of Di Ram, if you wouldn’t have it.”

“I’ve already gotten everything I could from it. In the secret library on the second bookshelf from the front, there are my notes. I leave them to the Six Mountain Sect, or what remains of it, in gratitude of taking care of me.”

Little Bug bowed humbly to Pi Phon, and the young man swallowed. “That’s not necessary. You can—”

“Nobody can tell the future, especially not me,” Little Bug said. “What you have given me cannot be taken back, and it will continue to grow and mature as I do. You are the soil in which I sprouted. That I am not a tree that sits still in my potting soil is no fault of yours, but I would be ungrateful if I did not give you some fruit for your trouble.”

“Do you always talk in metaphor now or is it just to sound wise?”

“Yes?” the boy chuckled. He sighed and closed the door behind him. “Pi Phon. If you do not leave the city by tomorrow night, you will die. I will not tell you where to go, but you already know where your duty takes you.”

The Avatar vanished.

Pi Phon cursed. He banged his head once more against the wall, then stood and began sending out mortal messengers to gather the remainder of his sect members, who had come south to judge the tournament.

It was time to return to the acting-patriarch.

~~~~~~~

All across the city, I said farewells and parted with people who had become close to me. The parting was unexpected and unanticipated, and many people felt emotions like that of a family member going on a journey from which they would never return.

I smiled and reassured everyone that I would return to Mer’cah in a year, for better or worse, but that things would be different. For me and for them.

For I saw the strings of fate pulling at them and marching their young men and women north, and I knew what that meant.

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The drums of war were a distant echoes, but if you listen close, you could just make out the beat.

I could only hope that I had the year I needed.

I leaned my head against the ancient meeting stone, pushed up from deep in the earth by a long forgotten cultivator for purposes unknown. Hien Ro was in town gathering the supplies that he needed, along with Yara and her father, Adan. I was mildly hungry, but so busy in my meditations that I barely noticed. It had only been two days since I’d eaten.

I was growing thin, I noticed idly. I’d have to do something about that, maybe.

Closing one eye and opening another, I walked into the clan of the Praying Mantis and knocked patiently. A mortal servant answered.

“Tell Taimei that it is time,” I said. “If she wishes to claim her reward, she has six hours to prepare. I will return for her when it is time.”

The mortal feinted.

I didn’t know how to handle that, so I closed the door and knocked again, repeating the message when the next mortal servant answered.

~~~~~~

Together they came at dawn.

From different walks of life they came.

Taimei had been born to a servant, adopted into the clan her family had served for generations when she ignited her dantian. Her father was unknown, but the clan’s patriarch always showed her special favor.

She came with a small pack and a smile, excited to finally earn the technique that she had ‘lucked into’ for placing fourth in the tournament. That only a moment of hesitation on the third place victor had been the difference between her taking this journey and another mattered not. She was here now.

She was the first to arrive.

Hien Ro came from the distant north. He did not know whether his parents were alive or dead, but they were the ones who set him on this path when they bribed a cultivator from the Six Mountain Sect to test him. He was thought to have low talent, but persevered through hard work and dedication until he befriended a boy who, without his protection, might have earned the nickname ‘stinky’ from the other disciples.

He was the second to arrive.

Moments behind him was Yara Pocef. She came from a loving family broken by disease. A fever had passed through the city when she was five years old, and she had fallen ill. Her parents had paid the healers every penny they owned and taken out loans for ten times more to save her life. The healers had done their job.

Two days later her mother had gotten ill with the same disease. They had no coin for a healer, but the mother promised that everything would be fine.

It wasn’t fine.

Her father had tried to earn the money back, only to fall deeper and deeper into debt. It was that debt which put her on this path.

She was the third to arrive.

The three lovers arrived together, unintentionally, from different directions. Farun, Arjun, and Lahri, each keeping the secret of their love for each other, disguising their interests as nothing more than affection. They were brought together by chance, and they were set upon this path by chance.

But chance is fate and fate is chance, and so the three Dao Companions were fated to walk this path at my side.

He came from the forest. He was looking forward to the story he would tell when he reached the end of this path, when we parted ways and walked in different directions. But for a while, he would walk beside me.

His name was Lukal Lukal, and he carried with him a spear. He had a round face and a wide grin, and he called out to the others at the joy of seeing the companions he was fated to know.

Nervous Polkluk came, loyal to his sect. He was from the branch families and knew that he was unimportant. He’d known this from the time he was young, for his father had told him so and his mother had told him so and all of his cousins had told him so.

But it was against him that Po Guah had revealed himself to the world, and he didn’t care if he was unimportant after that. He faced a genius, he had faced a force of nature, and he had not disgraced himself. And he was loyal, and that loyalty had earned him the right to walk this path.

And finally, he came. The champion who shouldn’t have won. He had crushed all opposition save for those who didn’t fight him. Thaseus came from a family that valued strength above all and had instilled this into him from his youngest days. He had killed seven people and maimed fifty-five, and he felt not a shred of remorse.

They met at the stone and fell silent as I meditated. Finally, I opened my eyes.

“This is a convergence,” I declared. “There is only one path that lies before us, and for a time we shall walk it together. We will go our own ways eventually, and what waits at the end of this path I cannot say. But for now we walk together. Let us begin.”

I stood, and I walked away. They followed.

And they had a very hard time keeping up as I bent time and space around me.

~~~~~~~

They came from different backgrounds and different places, some of them from different continents, but they all came to follow a boy along a path.

They did not know why they were there. Not truly.

The true reason, the reason that the boy did not want to admit, even to himself.

He did not wish to walk it alone, though he thought he must.

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