Chapter 38

Tan flew straight into the city, ignoring the gates and the glances of surprised commoners glancing up to point at the flying boy making his way for the compound of the richest merchant in the city. He set down in the courtyard where he had once healed Kora of her twisted bond with her spirit, looking around for a moment. The ancestral spirits were still sitting in their trees, ignoring him, but he acknowledged their presence with a quick nod anyway.

He found his parents by following their breaths. They were in one of the sitting rooms. He found Safron using the same technique, but the girl was napping, so he figured he’d see her later. Just as he was about to enter the main house of the merchant’s estate, the sky suddenly split as a bolt of lightning struck the courtyard.

Tan turned to greet his uncle, who was the only person he knew of who could travel using such a method. “Uncle Renton, you came!”

“Of course I did,” Renton said. “Where are your parents?”

“I was just going to meet them,” Tan said, and he led Renton inside. In the same room where he had first met Kora, he found his parents nervously speaking with the eight healers. Renton and Tan listened but remained silent as the healers continued to report their findings and recommendations.

“The good news is that the ‘itchiness’ that the child is reporting feeling is due to the erosion of the ki block,” the healer explained. “Her cultivation is proceeding slowly because of it, but it isn’t impeding her as much as we expected it to. Unfortunately, this also presents a problem. As the flow of her Qi has increased, the pressure on the block has also increased. Her Qi has doubled since we last inspected her, while the pressure upon the block has increased four fold. If this continues, it may present a threat.”

The healer proceeded to explain the worst case scenario. Tan swallowed.

Death. That was the worst case scenario. His little sister might die if nothing was done.

“What are the options?” Tren asked.

“There are several,” the lead healer explained. “The first is that she stops cultivating for a time and we allow the pressure to relieve itself naturally. It will take some time, and it’s not without risk. If the block suddenly breaks on its own, the results might be benign, or they might unleash built up toxins into her blood and cause her serious illness. I can’t predict the chances of success if nothing is done, but there are three outcomes. One is that once the block relieves itself, she is able to cultivate normally. The second is that she remains crippled afterwards, to an extent which I cannot predict. And the third option is of course the worst case scenario.”

Tan hated those words. “Don’t you dare let my sister die,” he told the healer. “If you do, I’ll never forgive you.”

The healer balked at the threat of the child, whose identity he knew perfectly well. He bowed at the young master and said “I am simply presenting all of the options. I do not recommend this option, but I would not be performing my duties to the best of my abilities if I did not present it. Let us proceed to the next treatment option.”

And so they listened for an hour as option after option was presented. The adults in the room asked questions that Tan understood, and they asked questions that were beyond his understanding, and they asked questions that were on the edge of his understanding. He listened as option after option was eliminated as being too risky or insufficient or otherwise unsatisfactory.

Finally, the treatment plan was settled upon. Feeling that he’d contributed nothing, Tan’s own part to play was highlighted for him. It was nothing more than powering the Four Gates of Heaven Fate Defying Formation, which to him felt like slightly more than doing nothing at all. He consoled himself by the fact that his the three adults of his family were relegated to the same task.

Once Safron was woken, the treatment to get rid of the itchiness once and for all was explained to her by her mother, with the help of one of the younger healers who worked hard to explain things in terms that a five year old could understand.

Once everything was in place, the Four Gates of Heaven Fate Defying Formation was empowered. Tan sat to the east of the compound’s main building, sitting in a circle that his father had carved into the ground hours earlier and running his Qi through the formation. He had left Key behind and hadn’t fed the Qi guardian since the night before so that he’d have enough energy for this, but the truth was that the Formation’s demands weren’t very power intensive.

It was complex enough to give him a headache, envisioning what he had to do with his Qi to empower the formation, but it was well within his capabilities.

On the other end other end of the compound, at the west gate, Renton silently meditated. He had only just met his niece, and he was uncomfortable with how little power he had in this situation. He had selected the best healers of the empire and brought them to this far-flung corner for this very purpose, but now that he had done so there was nothing left for him to do but empower a simple formation.

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Granted, it was a powerful formation which could bend fate itself to serve. But it wasn’t infallible. If Safron was destined to die, then it would take far more than the Four Gates of Heaven Fate Defying Formation to save her. If the fate of his niece was based on the outcome of a dice roll, however, then the Fate Denial aspect of the formation would ensure that the Shen family was playing with loaded dice.

To the north, Tren closed his eyes and empowered the formation in silence. Only his family would know to look at him how his emotions roiled underneath the surface.

And to the south, Wensho empowered the formation with the concern and love of a mother.

The older members of the Shen family were doing everything in their power to influence the outcome of the procedure on the youngest family member. They were bending the threads of fate itself to their will, and yet it felt like they were doing nothing at all.

In the main chamber of the merchant’s house, Safron fidgeted nervously as the healing pastes were painted onto her body in the shape of a healing formation. She was scared. Something Important was happening. The kind of Important with a capital I.

She wasn’t stupid, she’d figured out that maybe the itchiness was a bigger deal than she’d initially thought it was. That maybe there was something wrong with her, and that maybe it was something bad. She didn’t think she was a bad girl, although she knew she could be a brat sometimes, but rather thought that maybe she was born into a bad body and she was about to die. That was scary, and she was scared to ask for someone to tell her that she wasn’t about to die because what if they lied to her, or worse, what if they told her the truth?

But her mother had told her what to do, and she had complete faith in her parents. So once the healers finished painting her with the healing pastes, she drank the medicine that they gave her. She felt a warmth in her belly, a warmth that was filled with power. She took that power, closing her eyes, and she began to cycle it through her body, just like she’d been told.

The power, which felt like concentrated fire Qi that was way beyond what Safron could make for herself, but which was docile and easily followed her will, rubbed up against her itchiness and--

Safron screamed.

Then the world went still as the fated moment arrived and the Four Gates of Heaven Fate Defying Formation suddenly pulled in a hundred times more energy than any of the participants had ever expected to give it.

Safron’s soul left her body, but remained linked to it by a tether. She was whisked off to heaven, the power that flowed through her body’s meridians too much for her to endure.

Safron found herself surrounded by mist. She looked around, knowing that she was dead and that this was the afterlife. She wanted to cry, but couldn’t find the emotions for it. They were left behind in her body, she realized, and she’d have to go back for them later.

“Hello, dear little Safron Shenlong. I am pleased to meet you so soon. I thought that it would be many centuries before my family came to visit,” a voice said.

She turned and faced an old man in fancy robes. He had a long mustache which pointed out in either direction. “Who are you?” she asked.

“Your grandfather.”

“Are we dead?”

“I am. I failed my ascension, and so here I am. You are … in between.”

“I don’t think I want to be dead. My mom will be very sad,” Safron said.

“Yes. So let’s do something about that, shall we?” the old man said. “Give me your hand, Safron, and I will give you the strength to live.”

“Okay,” she said.

She took the old man’s hand, and suddenly she was back in her body. She screamed as the power flowing in her veins burned the itchiness, but despite the pain she found the will to continue to cycle the energy through her body. She kept going and going and going.

She kept right on going until all of the energy burned away, and she was left covered in black sweat that smelled of ash.

She collapsed. The healers rushed to bathe her and inspect her. The family was informed.

Safron would live.

The consequences of defying fate, however, remained uncertain.