Chapter 28

Traveling on a magic horse was surprisingly uncomfortable, the children learned after the first day. After the second day, they learned that it was agonizing. It wasn’t until the fifth day that they were used to being in the saddle. It took six more days after that to reach their destination, a large city on the edge of the ashlands.

Each night they made camp and Tren said a few magic words, made a few magic gestures, and turned their horses back into figurines for them. He would instruct them to recharge the figurines with their Qi before going to sleep, and to spend a while cultivating in a circle that he drew for them while thinking of everything they had seen and learned through the day.

Mostly, they had learned that the further south you went, the hotter it got, Tan thought to himself each night.

And that being saddle-sore was literally a pain in the butt.

When they finally reached their destination, the group of cultivators stopped just over the horizon from the city, which was called Mosanatas, and once more Tren turned their horse constructs back into their inanimate form. They walked the rest of the way, joining in the line to be admitted to the city with the rest of the citizens and visitors who were waiting at the gates.

“Why didn’t you want them to see the horses?” Won asked Tren as they waited.

“I didn’t want to attract attention,” Tren answered.

“We rode through towns and cities the entire way here,” the boy pointed out.

“Yes, we rode through them. We did not linger. And we have been avoiding civilzation for the last two hundred leagues,” Tren pointed out. “By the time word reaches this city of our journey it shouldn’t matter. I’ll have captured the spirit, and you’ll all have had your lessons.”

“Our lessons? Aren’t we here to help you?” Tan asked.

“I’m sorry to have deceived you, but the truth is that when confronting a powerful spirit, there’s not much room for error,” Tren admitted. “I brought you here because I have friends in this city whom you could benefit to meet. Each of you. And it will give you a better picture of the world outside our sleepy little village back home.”

“Oh,” Tan said, disappointed that his father thought he’d be in the way, so he was once more being ditched off to a babysitter.

The other children grew excited at the prospect of learning from a master, possibly one with great insights into their chosen elements. While Pao and Ko both already enjoyed this privelege in the forms of their Master and Mistress, another perspective on their Daos would be a welcome boon.

They paid the tax to get inside the city, which was just a copper coin for each of the children and three coins for Tren, and they moved through the streets for a while, seemingly either wandering or lost. They ate kabobs that were being sold by one of the street vendors, each bite of savory meet flavored with a spicy and sweet sauce.

Lizard meet, they learned when they asked. It came from a large lizard the size of a large dog. It’s bite was venomous, but they were raised for their meat in the Red Tiger Empire and were more common than cattle in the hot environment that bordered on the Ashlands.

Tan thought it tasted vaguely like chicken, but it was hard to be certain under the spices that flavored it. He tried to go into the Sublime State of Clarity, only for the heat of the kabobs to drive him quickly back out of it as the spice was too much for him.

They finally found a in that met with Tren’s approval, and they each bathed and changed into a clean set of clothes. Tan was surprised when his father unveiled the fancy green and yellow clothes that he had worn last year when he had met the stupid Zang girl and fixed her stupid broken spirit bond. He frowned, wondering why he was so hostile towards her.

“Zephyr, do you influence my thoughts on purpose?” he asked his spirit.

“Mostly no,” the spirit answered.

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“Mostly?”

“There’s some unavoidable bleeding over between the two of us,” she explained. “So if you ask if I do it on purpose, the answer is no. Unless I’m trying to influence you by talking to you and explaining things that are beyond your current understanding. Then the answer is yes, but it should be obvious what I’m doing. But my unconscious desires and feelings will blend with your unconscious desires and feelings and there’s not really anything that either of us can do about it.”

“So the reason I hate Kora Zang might be your fault?” he asked.

“You’re thinking of that stupid ugly cruel girl?” the spirit asked, incensed. “Why are you thinking about that sow?”

“Yeah, okay, I think you answered my question,” Tan said.

The clothes were tighter than they had been when he’d worn them last, but they were still loose and covered him fairly. The other children were surprised to find that Tren had dress clothes for each of them as well, each embroidered to declare that they were cultivators of their chosen element.

Won and Ko each wore a kimono, Won’s a burnt orange and Ko’s an aqua color. Pao wore a black tunic with matching leggings that was embroidered with silver. Each of the children paused when the clothes were unveiled as they tried to estimate how much the precious clothing was worth compared to their every day clothes.

Ten times more? A hundred? Surely not a thousand?

Pao thought about asking then, but he held back. The twins were too intimidated by the wealth that Tren Shen was displaying so casually.

Tan was oblivious. If anything, he was annoyed that the other kids were getting new clothes while the had to wear the same thing he’d worn in Lima City.

The group left the inn, drawing a shocked gasp from the proprietor as he realized that the guests whom he’d massively overcharged were cultivators incognito. He abruptly ordered food from one of the nearby restaurants to replace the swill that he usually served, in case they were hungry upon their return. There was nothing he could do about the state of the room that they were sharing; he wasn’t nearly so foolish as to send someone to clean it at this stage.

It was probably booby trapped with magical wards that would kill whoever entered, he reflected grimly, and promptly sent word to the maids that they were to leave those rooms alone unless they were invited explicitly inside.

Tren led the children a short distance away, where he found a local street boy. He tipped the boy to hire two palinquins, and the man rode on one while the four children rode on the other. They were brought to the palace, where they were shown promptly inside, despite lacking any sort of invitation or introduction.

Or rather, Tren’s Intent was the introduction and the invitation, as he flashed each of the guard with an overwhelming emotion that scared them almost to the point of loosening their bowels.

It wasn’t as though they could have stopped him, so they passed him on to the interior of the palace, knowing that the true imperial guards were the correct ones to deal with this situation.

Word traveled ahead of them, and sixteen of the imperial elites met them in the courtyard, hands on their weapons, ready to fight and die for the nobles residing in the palace.

“Zenith, you old scoundrel, it is good to see you again!” Tren called out to the head of the guard. “It’s been fifty years, do you recognize me?”

The middle aged man who was older than he looked squinted at the man, then said “Nope. You’re too damn clean to the be the Tren that I knew. You’re obviously an imposter. Guards, kill him.”

Tren burst into laughter even as the guards relaxed, knowing that this sort of banter meant that the two were old friends.

“What brings you to the Red Tiger Empire, My Lord?” Zenith asked.

“Spirit hunting for my daughter, and I was hoping to get some tutoring for my children. They’re not all related by blood, but I would consider it a favor if you were to treat them as if they were for the sake of their education. Pao is the tall one, he follows the Dao of the Bountiful Harvest, just like me, but if you could give him some pointers on the more ‘rocky’ Daos that would be to his benefit. The twins are Won and Ko, with Won following the Dao of the Everlasting Flame, and Ko following the Dao of the Frozen Rain. And finally there is Tan, who follows the Dao of the Azure Sky.”

Zenith studied the children, scratched his beard, then nodded. “I’ll see who is available to give them lessons. You may leave them with me, I swear to guard them as though they were my own blood.”

“I expect to be gone two weeks or more and I expect them all to have made significant progress by the time I return,” Tren said.

“As you wish, My Lord,” Zenith agreed.

“Thank you, Zenith. Here is your payment,” Tren said, tossing two scrolls on the ground. “From me and my wife. Observations on our Daos.”

“Ah, it seems that I’ll have to actually do my side of the bargain,” Zenith grumbled. “Very well, very well, you won’t find yourself shortchanged. I will give each of the children my personal attention while you’re gone and see to it that they receive the best education that the Emperor of the Red Tiger Empire can provide in such a short amount of time.”

“Thank you, my friend,” Tren said. Then he nodded towards the guards, turned, and took a step that caused him to vanish.

Leaving the children behind, wondering what the heck had just happened.